A Tale of Two Commanders
by shad0wstalker00
Summary: Jane Shepard and John Thompson must work together to find Saren Arterius and bring him to justice. My idea of what happens when two Shepards  with different backgrounds come together. Rated T for violence. Uses most missions from both games including most DLC's
1. Chapter 1: Eden Prime

**Author's note: **This is set in a universe where there was a protagonist for both the spacer and colonist backgrounds. I'm planning on doing a chapter for each of the main missions of bothe ME1 and ME2 as well as doing some of the more interesting side missions. I will be including content from asteroid X57 (I forget what the DLC is called), operation overlord, lair of the Shadow Broker, Arrival and both Kasumi and Zaeed's respective DLC's. Please R&R as any feedback would be greatly appreciated. If you think i should go ahead with romance scenes later please let me know as I am still undecided on the subject. Anyway I'm going to shut up now and let you enjoy the story.

**Edit:** Fixed the problem with Kaidan's name. I am humbly sorry for this transgression as neither I nor my beta reader noticed this.

**Second Edit: **Noticed I had put Shepard/Tali as my characters rather than Shepard/Garrus. Problem now fixed.

* * *

><p>'Nihlus, you're coming with us?' Jenkins asked, hopeful that he could see a Spectre in action.<p>

'I move faster on my own.' Replied the turian as he jumped out of the cargo hold.

'Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission, otherwise I want radio silence.' said Captain Anderson.

Shepard turned towards the Captain, 'We've got his back Captain.'

'The mission's all yours now, Shepard. Good luck, and remember: Commander Thompson is down there somewhere. If you can, try and see if he'll help.'

Joker's voice sounded over the comm channel, 'Approaching drop point two.' without a word the trio moved towards the open cargo bay doors and prepared to disembark.

With a well-practised precision they moved forward, each squad mate covering the others. Shepard crouched down and motioned Jenkins on ahead; as he moved out into the open two geth drones that were hiding around the corner opened fire. _No!_ Shepard thought as immediately Jenkins hit the ground. Aiming down the sights of her rifle she gunned down both drones in quick succession. She walked towards the lifeless form of her squad mate. _Damn it, less than a minute in and we've already lost Jenkins._ A tear formed in the corner of her eye._ Jenkins was a good man, he didn't deserve to die._ Shepard shook her head. _No, I need to stay focused on the mission._ She looked at Kaidan. _He's going to take it pretty hard, they were close_.

Kaidan walked over to his friend's corpse, 'Ripped right through his shields, never stood a chance.' He said.

'We'll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete, but I need you to stay focused.'

'Aye aye ma'am.' he responded, drawing his pistol and setting off towards the objective.

* * *

><p>Shepard looked at the spaceport, it was crawling with geth and there were more of those spikes with the strange blue husks on them. She couldn't tell from this distance but it looked like there was a body in front of some crates. Crouching behind cover she opened fire on the lead geth platform. They responded immediately, returning fire and getting behind cover. At the same time the spikes retracted and the husks got to their feet. As she took down another geth something caught her eye. <em>Oh shit.<em> She thought as an even larger group of geth appeared from behind the spaceport. _This could end very badly._ As they exchanged fire with the geth the husks began closing the distance alarmingly fast. Quickly changing her target she shot one through the head only to watch in horror as it shrugged off the round and kept coming. She quickly reached for her grenade pack and hurled one into the middle of the group, and the resulting explosion knocked the husks off their feet, but two of them got back up. They were far too close now; she managed to kill one just before it reached her but the other one fired off its E.M.P and knocked out her shields. It was just charging for another blast as Williams tore through it with her shotgun. Turning back to the spaceport she saw about a dozen geth still standing. At this rate her team wouldn't last much longer.

Then she saw a very odd sight indeed. A man in full black armour, his face obscured by a helmet, leapt from the cliff face to her left, landing on one of the geth platforms. Rolling as he hit the ground he dove at another geth, striking it in the chest with a blade protruding from the wrist of his armour. This newcomer to the battle forced the geth out of cover, making them easy targets for Shepard and her squad. The man struck a geth in what passed for its throat while simultaneously grabbing another and smashing it into one of the crates. He then punched it in the chest hard enough to form a crater around the point where he struck, completely collapsing it. The last geth platform still standing raised its rifle and aimed at him, but before it could even pull the trigger he had drawn his pistol and shot it through the head-light-thing. He holstered his gun and turned towards Shepard. He waited as she walked briskly up to him, her companions following warily. The man reached up and removed his helmet, letting it drop to the floor. He had short black hair and eyes the colour of steel. A wide grin spread across his sharp features as a twinkle lit up his keen eyes.

'Shepard old friend, it's been far too long.' he said in a calm, quiet voice.

'Thompson! I should have known you would show your face eventually.' she replied, an equally wide grin lighting up her face.

'Well, you know me, I can't resist a good fight and an opportunity to smash some geth was just too good to pass up.'

'You two know each other?' asked Ashley, clearly confused by the appearance of this strange man.

'That we do Williams, may I introduce Commander John Thompson. We grew up together, trained together, even served together for a while.' she said, walking over to him.

'John this is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.'

'A pleasure to meet you, any friend of Shepard's is a friend of mine,' he turned towards Shepard, 'I assume you're here on a mission? You look a bit heavily armed for shore leave.'

She slapped her head and groaned, 'Of course! I always forget something,' she said, still grinning, 'we came here to recover the beacon, fancy tagging along?'

'I don't see why not, things are more fun when you're around and I could use a break from the boredom of shore leave.'

Shepard laughed as she began walking up the steps to the spaceport. She stopped laughing however when she noticed the body in the middle of the platform. It was Nihlus.

* * *

><p>As they arrived at the other platform John saw a large cylindrical object leaning against the wall. He quickly ran up to it and began examining it.<em> Shit,<em> he thought.  
>'It's a bomb,' he said to the others, 'on a timer, by the looks of it we have five minutes until it blows.'<p>

'Are there any others out there?' Shepard asked, clearly concerned.

'If I'm reading this right then it's linked up to three other charges. We'll have to disable them all.'

'Can you do it?' Kaidan said.

'Child's play,' John responded 'whoever set these up obviously didn't think that someone would stumble on them.' he turned back to the device. It was a simple four button sequencer with a five digit passcode. It shouldn't take him long to crack. John quickly began typing in various codes while at the same time firing up a code on his omni-tool, just in case. As it turned out it wasn't needed as he cracked the code on his third try. A beeping sound confirmed the deactivation and he rose to his feet.

'Let's go.' he said, walking up the stairs next to the bomb. As they got half way across the catwalk he spotted a squad of geth just about to open fire.

'Get down!' John shouted, diving behind one of the panels on the railing. As his squad mates began returning fire he examined his omni-tool. It told him that there was another bomb nearby.

'Cover me.' he said to Shepard, who nodded and pulled out her sniper rifle. John engaged his suite's stealth systems, becoming completely invisible. He broke cover and ran across the catwalk over to the next bomb and began disarming it. Within a few seconds the device beeped, informing him of his success.

'That's two down, another two to go.' he said over his comms. Keeping his stealth systems engaged he crept up to the group of geth. Shepard was doing well, there were only two left. With a quiet clink, he extended his wrist mounted blades. All at once he disengaged his stealth and speared the two geth through the chests, dropping them instantly. He waited for the rest of the team to catch up.

'I've never seen anybody fight like that,' said Ashley, 'those blades are really effective.'

'It's just how I fight, most people think that hand to hand combat is long gone in this age. Just makes it all the more surprising when they find my blade embedded in their vital regions.' Williams nodded and looked away. She clearly wasn't prepared for his casual attitude towards such a dangerous method of combat. He could see another group of geth advancing towards them. He reached over his shoulder and primed his sniper rifle, motioning for the others to do the same. Shepard, Williams and himself set up behind a low wall while Alenko prepared a biotic blast to force the geth out of cover. John looked down his scope, aiming right into the optics of the lead geth platform.

'Now!' he shouted as he pulled the trigger, sending shards of metal flying everywhere. He heard gunshots from his left as the others opened fire. They managed to kill half of the geth before they could reach cover. As soon as they had, Kaidan released a singularity, causing the geth to fly out of cover. The three snipers cut them down mercilessly as the metallic forms hung helplessly in the air. As the last enemy fell John holstered his weapon and ran over to the next bomb. Two minutes left. He quickly disarmed the charge, taking only a few seconds to do so, before sprinting on to the final bomb. He disarmed it with exactly one minute and thirty seconds left. Plenty of time. He rose to his feet.

'That's the last of them. Let's go find this beacon.'

Turning a corner they saw the prothean beacon on the platform below them; It was surrounded by geth. John fired up his stealth system again as the rest of the squad scrambled for cover. He vaulted over the railing just as bullets started ricocheting off the walls. He sprinted for the rearmost geth, dodging past two others whose shields had already begun to buzz with the shots bouncing off them. He grabbed the geth and threw it to its death over the edge of the platform before turning around and burying his blade in another geth's back. He quickly dove behind a nearby pillar, the geth beginning to turn their attention towards him. Just as he reached cover they began firing at him, causing his shields to thrum loudly. His distraction allowed the others to take out several more geth. When he looked out from around his shelter there was only one left, hiding behind a low wall. Turning his stealth back on he slowly crept towards it. When he reached it he grasped its head with his right hand and yanked upwards. Hard. With an almighty screech the geth's head separated from its body which fell limply to the floor. He signalled the all-clear to the squad and turned to face the beacon.

'Normandy, the beacon is secure. Request immediate evac.' Shepard said over the comms. Ashley and Kaidan approached the beacon.

'This is amazing. Actual working prothean technology. Unbelievable!' Kaidan said in clearly amazed tone.

'It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up.' Ashley mumbled, turning back towards Shepard. Kaidan walked slowly up to the beacon and suddenly it lit up, pulling him towards it. Shepard immediately ran at him and hurled him out of the way, trapping her in its field of energy.

'Shepard!' Kaidan yelled as it pulled her up into the air.

'No! Don't touch her, it's too dangerous.' Said Ashley, holding Kaidan back. Shepard began to jerk violently as the beacon started emitting a high pitched noise. The pitch grew higher until the beacon exploded, throwing Shepard back and knocking her unconscious. John turned on his radio.

'Come in Normandy, this is the shore party, we have a problem.'


	2. Chapter 2: The Citadel

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter folks, hope you enjoy. This chapter took a long time to make because I didn't see my proof reader for a week, study leave and all that, but the next few chapters should be coming in much faster.**

* * *

><p>'Pleased to meet you Captain.' John said. They were aboard the Normandy after being picked up on Eden Prime. Shepard was in the med-bay; her condition was green but she was still unconscious. John had decided to talk to Anderson to discuss the mission and the possibility of joining his crew.<p>

'Likewise Commander,' Anderson replied, 'was there something I could do for you?' he gave him a questioning look.

'I just wanted to talk about the mission Captain. Seeing what those geth did on Eden Prime made me think. I don't normally work with a team but this is bigger than me. I know that whoever's behind this is going to receive a message in the form of your foot up his ass and I'd like to be a part of that, so I'm requesting a transfer to the Normandy.'

'Granted Commander; I know you and Shepard have a history together and I'm sure you'll be an asset to the team.'

'Thanks Captain. If there's anything I can do, anything whatsoever, you just have to ask.' he saluted and walked over to the elevator. _Engineering would be the best place for me. _He thought, _my infiltrator training should give me the tech skills I need to fit in._ As soon as the painfully slow elevator arrived he walked into the cargo bay and through the door to engineering. When he saw the drive core he emitted a low whistle. _Impressive; I've never seen such a drive core on a ship this small. _He walked over to one of the people manning the terminals.

'Commander Thompson reporting. I've just joined the crew and thought I might make myself useful down here.' he said. The man turned around and saluted.

'Chief Engineer Adams. What kind of training do you have?' the man asked.

'I trained as an infiltrator so I know my way around a program.' John said. Adams nodded, pointing to a terminal on the back wall.

'You can be in charge of the Normandy's weapons maintenance. That console should have everything you need on it.' John thanked him and walked over to his station. _It's been a long time since I did anything like this; let's hope I still remember how._ He reached out to the console and activated the optimising matrix. _Ah yes, now I remember._ He began cycling through the various settings and noticed something odd. _These are standard protocols, factory line-up. That wouldn't be too bad on a factory standard ship but here? It could cause catastrophic damage to the electronics._ He let out a sigh. _This will take some time. Not that I have anything else to do._ Without further delay he began changing the firing algorithms to better suit the Normandy's stealth-optimised drive core. Not long after that he heard the door open next to him and Shepard walked in.

'Just checking in to see how you're getting along.' she said.

'Oh just swell Shepard, I mean in the many hours I've spent aboard this ship since Eden Prime I've gotten to know every damn facet of this ship.' he replied sarcastically. How could Shepard expect him to do after only being aboard for a few minutes? She just chuckled under her breath.

'Actually I came down here to tell you that we're on our way to the Citadel, it should take about ten hours.'

'Oh wonderful! I've never been to the Citadel before; I do so love a field trip.' she just shook her head and moved on. Smiling, he returned to his console. The ten hours would give him plenty of time to find out what needed doing to the weapons systems.

* * *

><p>John grimaced, the calibrating had put him in a bad mood; it turned out that the system needed a complete overhaul. It would take him months to put it right. On top of that the Ambassador was having an argument with the Council.<p>

'What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre, I demand action!' yelled the Ambassador, clearly disgruntled by the Council's stonewalling.

'You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador.' the turian Councillor responded derisively, his opinion on humans clearly. Typical turian racism, John didn't see the point in all the hate between humans and turians. The way he saw it, race doesn't matter; every civilization has its heroes and its villains. Both races were at fault and the racism was just petty, no better than the discrimination against black humans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

'Citadel security is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss the C-Sec findings at the hearing. Not before.' said the asari Councillor, signalling the end of the meeting.

'Politics.' John grumbled under his breath. He turned to Shepard who grunted in agreement, she then turned to face the Ambassador as he approached. John just kept leaning against the balcony while the Ambassador talked to Captain Anderson. He didn't bother listening in. It wasn't important and he couldn't be bothered to sift through the words to find the real meaning. He began running through the firing control algorithms in his head, looking for the quickest way to get his job done. After a few minutes he heard Udina stop talking and he turned to face the rest of his squad.

'And that's why I hate politicians.' Ashley mumbled, shaking her head in frustration.

'Couldn't agree more gunny.' John said as they set off for the Citadel tower. They all got into the cramped elevator and pressed the button for the Citadel Tower. The ride up was long. Really long. John hated elevator rides: they bored him out of his mind and the music grated on his nerves. After what seemed like an eternity they reached the top and left the elevator with some relief, only to be confronted by two turian C-Sec officers in a heated discussion. The one in blue armour spoke first;

'Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them.' he said.

'Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over Garrus.' the other one growled, walking away in disgust. The one named Garrus turned to Shepard. He introduced himself as Garrus Vakarian; apparently he led the investigation against Saren. He was clearly quite agitated by the fact that he knew the Spectre was up to something but he had turned up no evidence. _Interesting, if he was so vehemently pursuing Saren, he could be a valuable member of the team. _Kaiden interrupted and hurried them along to meet the Council. When they reached the platform, the hearing had already started. John didn't bother listening, from what Garrus had said he already knew what would happen. The two groups began heatedly arguing, Shepard getting more irritated as time went on. He just shook his head as Saren ridiculed their every argument against him. The meeting ended as he knew it would, with Saren being exonerated and the group returning down the stairs bitterly disappointed. Udina of course pinned the blame on Anderson and Shepard. John perked up when he heard Kaiden make a suggestion.

'What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator? We saw him arguing with the executor.' Ashley voiced her agreement and John backed him up.

'He would make a valuable member of the team.' Shepard nodded,

'Any idea where to find him?' she asked. Udina suggested his contact: Harkin, before informing them that Shepard would take over from Anderson. John wasn't displeased with that; if anyone could take on Saren, it was Shepard. Anderson then told them that they could find Harkin in Chora's Den.

'I do love a good bar.' John said to no one in particular.

'I wouldn't call it 'good' by any means Commander. It's a stingy little dive frequented by people like Harkin to drown their sorrows.'

'We'll check it out.' Shepard said her farewells and walked back to the elevator. It was a long walk to Chora's Den.

* * *

><p>As they rounded the corner next to Chora's Den, John caught movement out of the corner of his eye and heard someone yell 'That's her!'. John immediately ducked behind the railing panels and engaged his stealth field; as his squad mates took cover from the incoming fire he flanked the would-be assassins. When he was right next to them he pulled out his predator and fired a round into both of their heads, dropping them instantly as their brains exploded out onto the balcony. He waited for the others to catch up while examining their corpses.<p>

'Assassins, turian. Looks like Saren's men,' he said to Shepard, 'it would seem he's afraid of you.'

'So he should be. He'll pay for what he's done. I'll make sure of it.' she said, storming off into Chora's Den. From what John could tell, the Captain was right. It really was a dive. They saw Harkin sitting in the far corner and made their way over to him. Before they reached him though, they witnessed an exchange between a pair of krogan. John thought he recognised one of them. He was wearing red armour and was clearly threatening the other krogan into submission, declaring his wish to kill a guy called 'Fist'. Shaking off the encounter they walked over to Harkin who greeted them in a sultry fashion.

'Alliance military. Hmph, I coulda been a marine you know. Instead I joined the goddamned Citadel Security. Biggest mistake of my life.' the man was clearly intoxicated and mourning the loss of his job. John was in no mood to deal with drunkards so it was a good thing that Shepard was handling it.

'You're Harkin right? I was told you could help me find a C-Sec officer named Garrus.' she said. Harkin then mumbled something about Captain Anderson being a spectre.

'Just tell me where Garrus went.' Shepard asked, irritated by the man's drunken gossip. He then told her that Garrus was in a med clinic in the wards, owned by a doctor Michel. Without further ado they set off for the clinic on the other side of the wards. As they entered her office they heard someone threatening the doctor. They drew their weapons as one of the thugs grabbed the doctor and put a gun to her head.

'Who are you?' Shouted the merc as the squad trained their weapons on him. Suddenly Garrus jumped out to the right of the man and shot him clean through his head. Doctor Michel ran for cover as the other thugs scrambled behind the medical crates at the back of the room. They were no match for the trained professionals, however, and were cut down in seconds.

'Perfect timing Shepard, gave me a clear shot at that bastard.' Garrus said to the Commander.

'Glad I could help.' Shepard replied.

'Doctor Michel, are you hurt?' Garrus asked curtly.

'No, I'm okay. Thanks to you. All of you.' she said. She then proceeded to tell Shepard about the quarian she had helped who went to see Fist. John became interested when she said that the quarian wanted to see the Shadow Broker to give him information to trade for her safety. Then it transpired that Fist sold her out to Saren, which really got him interested. _What could she have that Saren would want so badly._ Then a thought occurred to him: _that krogan was going to kill Fist, maybe he could help them._ John then tuned back into the conversation at the exact moment that Garrus asked to be a part of the team. Obviously Shepard accepted and they set off.

'What about that krogan?' Garrus said, 'he was going after Fist as well, he could make a powerful ally.'

'You must mean Wrex, he's down in C-Sec right now, if he's still there we could catch him and recruit him.' Garrus said to Shepard. She only took a second to decide.

'We'll go and pick him up now, then we'll pay Fist a visit.'

* * *

><p>As they approached Wrex he was surrounded by three C-Sec officers.<p>

'You should warn Fist, I will kill him.' He said to the officer in front of him who threatened to arrest him. Wrex just shrugged him off and walked over to their little group.

'Do I know you human?' he said.

'I'm Shepard and I'm going after Fist. Thought you might want to come along.'

'Shepard? Commander Shepard? I've heard about you, you're a warrior like me, so I'll give you a fair warning. I am going to kill Fist.' Garrus interrupted him.

'Fist knows you're coming, we'll have a better chance if we all work together.' After a moment's hesitation Wrex agreed and Shepard took him on board. With grim determination they set off to find Fist and whatever answers were waiting for them.

* * *

><p>Everything was quiet as they approached Chora's Den. There was no music playing; no sounds of drunken behaviour.<p>

'Looks like it's shut down.' Garrus said.

'Fist knows we're coming.' Wrex rumbled. The door to the bar was locked so John knelt down to hack the controls. _Very weak encryption protocols, I could probably hack this in my sleep._ he thought as he entered the cracking code into his omni-tool.

'Okay, the door's unlocked. I think it's fairly safe to say that Fist will have hired some thugs to deal with us so get ready for a fight. I'm going to open the door on three.' he whispered to the rest of his squad. They all drew their weapons and took up positions around the door.

'Ready? One… Two…Three!' he hit the release button and almost immediately heard gunshots. He quickly flicked on his stealth systems and waited for a gap in the firing before quickly sprinting round the door. He counted a dozen mercenaries, including the krogan bouncer. _Crap, I forgot about him._ John decided that the krogan would be his responsibility as he could easily decimate the squad due to their lack of cover. Currently the only thing protecting them was the withering hail of bullets emanating from them, causing the mercenaries to keep their heads down. Extending his twin blades he ran straight for the krogan. John leapt into the air and darted his arms forward, piercing both of the krogan's eyes. Before he could react John struck again, this time cutting through his enemy's exposed neck. His blades easily tore through bone and muscle alike, causing catastrophic damage to the krogan and sending thick orange blood flying in every direction.

Next he turned his attention to a sniper who was just bringing his gun to bear on John. With lightning reflexes he vaulted the table in front of him and rolled beneath the sniper's gun; swinging his right arm around to sever the man's carotid artery. He staggered backwards clutching at his throat as the arterial blood soaked John's black armour. He quickly grabbed the man's rifle and turned to see who else was left. There was only one mercenary left, hiding behind the counter of the bar facing his squad. He hadn't seen John yet so he took his time in lining up the shot. He looked through the scope at the terrified man's eyes and hesitated. _So young, barely old enough to hold a gun. He probably thought he'd just be threatening some poor civilians into submission for a couple of creds. _John sighed as he made the shot, seeing the light in those eyes extinguished forever. _It never gets any easier._ He thought as he dumped the sniper rifle on top of its owner's corpse.

He signalled the all clear and the rest of his squad hurried to join him. They walked over to the next door, leading to the back rooms. As they opened the door a pair of men pointed pistols at them.

'Stop right there! Don't come any closer!' the lead one said.

'Warehouse workers. All the real guards must be dead.' Garrus told Shepard. The worker pointed his pistol at the turian.

'Stay back or we'll shoot!'

'This would be a good time to find somewhere else to work.' Shepard said to him. The workers agreed and walked out of the door the team had just come through.

'Glad you said that Shepard. I do so hate killing innocent people.' John murmured.

'Killing people isn't always the answer.' Garrus agreed.

'We should be getting close to Fist.' They moved on, going through the next door. As they went through he noticed the door on the left was already open. John engaged his cloak and popped his head round the corner. Fist was crouched behind a desk at the back of the room. There was a sentry turret either side of him. John turned back to the others.

'He's here, and he's got two turrets,' he whispered, 'when you give the order Shepard, I'll hit them with an overload.' She nodded and walked towards the open door. Just before she reached it she tapped him on the shoulder. He immediately ran the overload program and heard their electronics fry from around the corner. Within seconds the team had moved into the room and pinned Fist to the wall.

'Where's the quarian?' Shepard demanded. Fist began stumbling over himself, telling them that he didn't know where she was.

'He's no use to you, can we kill him?' Wrex growled.

'Wait! I don't know where she is but I know where you can find her. She isn't here, said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself.'

'Face to face?' Wrex said, clearly alarmed, 'Impossible, even I was hired through an agent.' Fist then told them about how nobody meets the Shadow Broker, but the quarian didn't know. Fist had set up a false meeting to trap her with Saren's men. Shepard grabbed the treacherous man by the throat.

'Give me the location. Now.' she snarled. He told her it was in the back alley, by the markets, and that the meeting was going on as they spoke. Without pausing for thought John turned and ran out of the door; he thought he heard a shotgun blast behind him and sprinted as fast as he could into the bar. More mercs had taken up positions in the bar but John had no time for them. Before they could react he threw a grenade into the midst of the largest group, the detonation killing them all. One of the men was blocking his path but John just picked him up by the throat and; without stopping his headlong flight, slammed him into a wall; breaking his neck.

* * *

><p><em>Keelah<em> Tali thought; pacing up and down the corridor. _How have I gotten myself into this mess?_ She was tired, hungry and aching all over. _The Shadow Broker had better get here soon, or I'll…_ She'll what? Tali didn't know anymore, she couldn't think properly. The run from Saren's men had exhausted her and she couldn't wait for the deal to be made so that she could finally be safe. Still, something didn't feel right, she didn't like going to this meeting alone; she had already been betrayed enough times. Tali shook her head, _I'm just tired, that's all. As soon as I get a good night's sleep I'll be fine._ _I hope…_ Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard the door behind her open. She turned to look at who it was and saw a turian and two salarians. All heavily armed. The turian walked up to her,

'Did you bring it?' he asked.

'Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?' she said in a very shaky voice.

'They'll be here, where's the evidence?' the turian reached up to stroke her helmet. The look in his eyes made her feel violated. She slapped his hand away,

'No way. The deal's off.' the turian took a few steps back and she turned to see the two salarians drawing their pistols. _Not again! I don't think Dr Michel will be able to help me out of this one._ In desperation she threw a tech mine at them, armed with the sabotage protocol before quickly diving for cover. She landed on her back and clutched herself in pain. _Well that was stupid, looks like this is the end._ Tali prepared herself for being shot, for the pain of death, but it never came. She heard a sound like metal hitting metal and then gunshots. She opened her eyes to see two black-armoured legs in front of her. _Oh Keelah._ She thought; moving her eyes further up she saw his armour was slick with blood. Blue, orange and red. _This just keeps getting worse!_ She prepared herself for what seemed inevitable, but then she looked into his eyes. He was quite possibly the most handsome man she had ever seen; which struck her as very strange as he was human. His sharp, well-defined features were outlined by raven black hair but what caught her attention were his eyes; eyes that seemed to be looking into her very soul. A shiver went up her spine as she lost herself in those steel grey orbs. Slowly the man extended his arm, offering her his hand.

'Don't be afraid, you're safe now.' he said in an incredibly soft voice. Without understanding why, Tali knew she could trust him with her life. She grasped his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Looking out at the scene that confronted her, she felt her anger rising.

'Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!' a female human approached her.

'Are you alright?' she asked.

'I know how to handle myself in a fight. Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?'

'My name's Shepard, I'm looking for evidence that proves Saren's a traitor.' the woman answered.

'Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life. But not here. We need to go somewhere safe.' a turian in blue armour started to say something.

'We could take her to the human embassy. Your ambassador will want to see this anyway.' he said. The group began walking to the elevator, leaving her to walk along behind. _What just happened? This must be a dream, no way would I ever be rescued like that in real life. But it must be real, I haven't slept in days so how could I be dreaming?_

'You coming?' said a voice behind her. Startled, she turned around to see the man from before smiling at her.

'Sorry, I'm a bit tired, it's taking a while for all this to settle in.'

'Don't worry about it, you've been through a lot. Just take your time.' he said in his gentle voice. Why was he being so kind to her? Did he have an ulterior motive? No, it seemed genuine. Most people just spurned her and resented her for being a quarian.

'Thanks. Umm, excuse me for asking, but what's your name?' the man slapped his head comically.

'I knew I was forgetting something! The names Thompson, John Thompson,' he said with a wide smile on his face, 'let me introduce you to the others.' _Others?_ She looked at the rest of the squad and gasped. She had been so preoccupied she hadn't even noticed who she was travelling with. There was Shepard, two other humans, the turian and a krogan! _How strange. _Tali thought. Thompson then pointed to the other humans.

'Over there you have Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko,' the male nodded to her, 'and Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams.' the female gave her a little wave. Next, he pointed to the krogan.

'Twinkle toes here is called Wrex. Don't let his looks deceive you; he's really a big softie.' Tali giggled at that: the thought of a krogan ever being a 'softie' was ludicrous.

'And finally the ugly one in blue goes by the name Garrus Vakarian.'

'Hey!' the turian shouted, 'amongst turians I'm considered attractive!'

'Really?' Thompson said in wonderment, 'Turian women must have some very strange tastes.' Garrus just rolled his eyes and kept walking. Tali couldn't stop smiling. What was it about this man that could cheer her up so easily? It took her a second to realise that he was now looking at her.

'What about yourself?'

'My name's Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.'

* * *

><p>They were in the Citadel Tower, or rather in the incredibly long elevator. John was feeling pensive. He should be elated: they had found what they were looking for; proof that Saren was behind the Eden Prime attack. <em>And yet…<em> There was something on his mind; the Quarian. He didn't know why but there was something strange about her. Not in a bad way, but he just couldn't keep his thoughts from her. Every so often he would realise he was staring at her and quickly tried to divert his attention to something else but it was useless. John was usually a jovial person but he felt even more so when talking to her. _Strange. _He thought; he would have to consider this at length. For now though, they had a rogue spectre to expose.

They headed towards the platform; Anderson was already waiting for them. Yet again they had started the meeting without them. They climbed the stairs to hear Udina already playing the recording to the Council. After the recording finished the councillors looked at each other. The turian councillor voiced his judgement; pronouncing that Saren would be declared rogue and apprehended as soon as possible. _By us no doubt. _John thought as the asari said something about a 'Matriarch Benezia' whoever that was. Before long the councillors were arguing with them about the existence of the Reapers. _They do love to argue, I'll give them that._ He saw where this was going, and almost immediately he got confirmation.

'Send me in.' said Shepard. The Asari councillor voiced her agreement. _I do love being right._ John thought with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3: Therum

**Author's Note:** Here we are again fellows, another chapter. My exams are over on monday so _hopefully_ I will be able to write even faster. Some people may be concerned that I am writing an overpowered character into the story but fear not, for I have plans regarding this. Besides, those of you who may be concerned about what Thompson survives should remember what Zaeed and Garrus have both lived through. Anyway I shall shut up now and let you read my most wonderful story.

**Edit: **Noticed a fairly crucial plot error at the end there, fixed it now.

* * *

><p>John began tapping his foot impatiently. <em>How long is Shepard going to be?<em> He thought. She was outside the airlock talking to Councillor Udina and Captain Anderson while the rest of the crew waited anxiously in the CIC. Once again John's thoughts turned to Tali. _Is she really ready to join us? Wherever we're going it'll be dangerous and a quarian still on her pilgrimage can't be that good in a fight._ He looked over at her and made a decision. _If she's coming along anyway I might as well protect her until she gets some decent battlefield experience. I won't let a crew member die on me. Not again._

'You ever been in a battle Tali?' he asked, trying to break the silence. She looked over at him, startled that someone had spoken to her.

'Not really,' she said, 'the only fights I've ever been in were when Saren's men tried to ambush me. I've always preferred running to fighting.'

'I didn't think you would have much combat experience seeing as you're still on your pilgrimage and all, it's normally only the marines that get training. Not many quarians even carry guns while on their pilgrimage.' She tilted her head at him, clearly confused by his knowledge of the quarians.

'How do you know that? Most people don't know anything about us other than the whole geth thing.'

'I read a lot during my childhood. Your people have always fascinated me for some reason.' Tali was about to reply when Commander Shepard walked through the airlock.

'What news Shepard? Are we to go gallivanting around the universe hunting after a rogue spectre, throwing ourselves at every danger that passes our way?' John said with a wide grin on his face. He had already surmised what had transpired outside the airlock. A smile touched the corners of Shepard's lips as she replied.

'Hit the nail on the head Thompson; Captain Anderson is stepping down, leaving me in command of the Normandy. Our first lead is Liara T'Soni, Matriarch Benezia's daughter. Apparently she's on a prothean dig site on a planet called Therum. We have eight days to spare until then. Crew dismissed.' John saluted and walked over to the elevator.

'Commander? Where are our stations?' he heard behind him. He turned around to see Garrus and Tali looking at him expectantly.

'Garrus, you can take over maintenance on the Mako. Tali, we'd better go ask Chief engineer Adams where he wants you.' he then motioned them over to the elevator, 'I'll have to give you a tour sometime, for now though all you need to know is that this level houses the CIC, mess hall, med bay and sleeper pods. Down the elevator is the cargo bay and engineering deck.' John entered the lift and pressed the button to go down a level. Once again he thought about how painfully slow it was. Maybe Tali could do something about that. Eventually the elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the cargo bay.

'That's the Mako over there Garrus; Tali, follow me.' he turned towards engineering. As the door opened he could hear Tali gasp at the sight of the drive core.

'Engineer Adams I would like you to meet the newest member of our crew, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya.' he said as the man turned to greet them.

'Pleasure to meet you Miss Zorah, what kind of experience do you have?'

'I worked as an engineer back on the flotilla, patching fuel lines, repairing engines, that sort of thing.' she said, clearly proud of her engineering status.

'Well then, that panel over to my right should have everything you need on it. You'll be in charge of the propulsion system; I'll send a message to Shepard to give you full access.'

'Full access?' she asked, 'you're actually going to trust me just like that?'

'Of course, quarians have a natural affinity for this sort of thing and we need to make the most of your natural talents. Chances are that you'll be helping out with all sorts of mechanical problems all around the ship so you're going to need full access.' John said, walking over to his station, 'if you need anything, feel free to ask Adams or myself.' he stopped just short of his terminal, suddenly remembering something. He looked down to see his armour covered in the dried blood of the mercenaries.

'Excuse me for a moment Adams, I'm going to need to clean my armour. I may be a while.' the engineer nodded to him and returned to his work. As John left the engineering deck he heard Tali start asking questions about the drive core.

* * *

><p>'Why do you suppose Commander Thompson covers himself up like that?' Ashley asked. They were in the mess hall, sitting down to eat. Thompson had arrived late, apparently having spent his time cleaning dried blood off his armour.<p>

'What do you mean Ash?' Kaidan inquired.

'Alliance military off-duty clothing is always the same; short sleeves as standard, but the Commander wears long sleeves and gloves. Gloves! Nobody wears gloves off duty.'

'Maybe he's just more comfortable like that. Still, they can't have been easy to get a hold of; the Alliance doesn't supply them and they don't approve of changes in the dress code.' Ashley motioned to Kaidan to be quiet as she saw Thompson approaching with his rations.

'Am I interrupting something?' he said with a raised eyebrow.

'Not at all sir, please excuse me.' Ashley said, not used to being so informal with a superior officer.

'At ease Williams, I'm not big on formality.' he set down his tray and began eating, 'so what's your story?'

'Well, I was stationed on Eden prime when the geth hit. Entire squad got wiped out, joined Shepard to get some payback. That's all there is to it.'

'I meant before that Williams. I've seen your profile, you've distinguished yourself repeatedly over your service period and yet you're stuck with ground duty guarding a frontier colony? What's the deal with that?' Ashley paused, shocked that he didn't know.

'I'm the granddaughter of General Williams, the man who commanded the regiment on Shanxi.' Thompson stopped eating for a moment and she could clearly see the conflicting emotions in his eyes. _Great. Another bigot._ She thought. The Commander was silent for a long time before finally replying in a very quiet voice.

'I'm sorry Williams.' she was taken aback by this statement, not expecting him to be sorry.

'What for Commander? You've done nothing wrong.'

'I'm sorry for everything you have been through because of your grandfather. Every promotion denied, every friend spurned because of something you didn't do. The hate your name receives for the deeds of a man long dead.' Ashley shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with someone showing emotion to her.

'You needn't be sir, not like you're the one who denied me promotion.' Thompson just nodded at her and the table returned to silence. Not long after that she heard the elevator doors open again and the quarian turned the corner into the mess hall. The Commander turned to watch as she got some nutrient paste from the nearby dispenser and sat down with them. She was wringing her hands in nervousness and excitement over something.

'This ship is incredible Thompson! I don't know how you managed to fit such an impressive drive core on a ship this small. It's no wonder the Alliance is so strong if you have technology like this.' she said in a hurried voice. Thompson smiled at her as he responded.

'The Normandy is a special ship; I've never seen anything like her. Can't wait to put her through her paces. Shame about the software though.' she looked at him quizzically.

'What's wrong with the software?'

'It's all in factory settings, designed for a drive core with a fraction of the power output ours has. Currently if we ever need to use our weapons, our shields or our stealth systems in conjunction we run the risk of massive power surges through the T-4 capacitor banks; leaving us helpless in a fight.' Tali gasped as she heard that.

'But that could cause catastrophic damage to the drive core! It could get us all killed!' Thompson nodded, obviously satisfied with her grasp of technology.

'I'm currently working on the problem but it will take at least a month for me to get the problems sorted on my own.'

'I could lend you a hand, with the both of us we should be able to get it done before we reach Therum.' the Commander's smile grew larger.

'I'd like that, I'd like that a lot.' the two engineers then began talking shop and it became harder for Ashley to follow the conversation; so she just finished her meal and walked off, leaving them to it.

* * *

><p>'Two hours out from Therum Shepard.' he heard Joker say over the intercom.<p>

'Roger that. Crew, meet me in the briefing room.' John sighed and turned away from his terminal. In the week since they had left the Citadel he had been working almost nonstop to get the Normandy fully functional but even with Tali's help it was taking a long time; they were only half way through the programs. He headed over to the elevator where he saw the rest of the squad waiting for him. After the elevator arrived they made their way over to the briefing room to find Shepard standing in front of a hologram of Therum's surface.

'This is the underground complex where Dr T'Soni is working.' she began, highlighting a region of the map, 'There's something distorting our sensors so the only safe place we can find to drop the Mako is a few clicks down the valley, here.' she highlighted another region of the map. John quickly formed a plan of his own and walked over to the hologram.

'My specialty is infiltration and information gathering; if the Normandy can drop me off about halfway to the dig site, I can explore this area here and see if I can't find out the source of the distortion.'

'But the Normandy can't fly low enough to drop you safely, how are you going to land?' Tali asked.

'My suit has built in deceleration thrusters and impact shielding designed to let me hard drop from aircraft. Makes infiltration a damn sight easier.' he said. Tali just shook her head, clearly dubious of his statement.

'The rest of you can come with me in the Mako.' Shepard said, closing down the holographic projector. Everybody headed down to the cargo bay to suit up. While he waited for the ship to reach his drop point he began going over methods in his head, thinking of the different situations he could be facing and how to counter any problems that might arise. After what seemed like only a few minutes he heard Joker's voice through his helmet.

'Ten minutes until your drop point Thompson, hope you're ready.' he took a deep breath and waited for the cargo bay door to open before leaping out into the planet's atmosphere.

* * *

><p>This was Garrus's first time being dropped in the Mako and he had to say he rather enjoyed it. The feeling of weightlessness followed by the sudden impact of the Mako hitting the ground was quite thrilling. He could tell that Tali didn't like it though as she was clutching the armrests very tightly indeed.<p>

'If you think this was bad you should see what Thompson went through on his drop. That must've been something else.' she just glared at him. Before long he could feel the Mako begin moving along the rough terrain; the shock absorbers managing to iron out the worst of the bumps.

'Thompson here, I'm in position and can see the source of the disturbance. The geth have set up a base of operations blocking your path. It consists of two gates, one at either end of the compound. The front gate is guarded by two rocket turrets. Inside the compound I count ten geth platforms, four are carrying heavy weaponry. The only way to open the gates is from inside the compound but there is a side entrance big enough for the Mako to fit through guarded by a further two turrets.' Garrus heard over the radio.

'Roger that, where is this side entrance?' Shepard responded.

'To your right as the first gate comes into view, you can't miss it. I'm going to find myself a decent sniping position and offer covering fire. I'll let you know when I've dealt with the heavy weapons. Thompson out.' Shepard turned from her position at the driver's seat.

'Garrus, you're up. Take the gunners seat.' Garrus nodded and settled into the seat next to Shepard. With the flick of a switch he brought up the holographic interface and engaged the camera feed. Almost immediately he heard a roaring sound from above him and a geth drop ship entered his sights.

'Looks like they already know we're here.' he mumbled as he readied his mass accelerator cannon. Almost as soon as the armatures had hit the ground he opened fire with the machine gun, ripping through their shields before tearing them apart with a blast from the cannon. Shepard continued along the path without even slowing down. Before long they arrived at the geth base, Shepard taking them down the side route without a moment's hesitation. As soon as Garrus encountered the turrets he gunned them down. Just before they emerged into the compound he heard four gunshots in quick succession.

'Alright, the heavy weapons are dealt with. I'll leave you to it while I scout on ahead.' They emerged into the compound at full speed, cutting down three geth before they could even respond. The rest fell just as quickly as Garrus drilled them full of holes with the machine gun or turned them into a molten pile of slag with the cannon. The fight was over in seconds and Shepard brought them to the far gate, telling Wrex and Tali to get out and open it. As the gate opened Garrus heard Thompson's voice over the radio again.

'Scattered ahead of you are four geth armatures. They are fairly spread out so you shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with them. After that is a group of four geth platforms and a colossus.' _A colossus? Shit, that's going to be tough to take down, _'I'll deal with the smaller geth and leave you to the colossus. From what I can see there's a point later on which is too small for the Mako to fit through, I'm going to wait for you there. Over and out.'

* * *

><p>John leaned against the rocks, waiting for Shepard to arrive in the Mako. He looked down at his omni-tool,<em> it's been ten minutes, and by my judgement Shepard should have encountered the colossus by now. If I'm right they'll be another five minutes.<em> He thought. Sure enough five minutes later he heard the far off sounds of gunfire and explosions, marking Shepard's location. Before long he could hear the sounds of the Mako's engine getting steadily louder and the vehicle came roaring round the corner at high speed, stopping just short of the rocks. _Not exactly stealthy._ The rear hatch opened with a load _clink_ and the squad marched out.

'Let's do this.' he said, leading them through the gap in the rocks. They came to a large open space with little cover; as they reached the middle of the space two geth emerged from farther down the path and opened fire. Almost before they had fired the first shot John had drawn his pistol and shot the first one through the eye-thing. He aimed at the other one just in time to see it gunned down by the rest of his squad. Keeping his pistol aimed down the path he continued towards the dig site. As he saw another open area he held up his hand to tell the others to stop before engaging his stealth generator. He slowly crept forward and examined the area; it looked like a quarry, they were in the lower section with a soil ramp leading to the next level. The floor was scattered with rubble that could be used as cover but there was a problem: two sniper towers were built onto the higher level, giving the geth inside a clear shot. There were four more geth on the higher level and three on the lower level. After relaying this information to his squad he began making his way up to the higher level. He needed to take out those snipers before his teammates could advance.

John stood directly behind the sniper, moving extremely slowly to prevent it from detecting the movement in the air. In the blink of an eye he brought his fist upwards, sending his blade though the centre of mass. White conductive fluid flew everywhere as all of the geth turned to him, thinking at the speed of light they opened fire before the body hit the floor but they hit only air as he had already engaged his stealth system and departed. John moved with haste towards the next sniper tower, trying not to give the geth enough time to pinpoint his location. With a great leap he grabbed onto the ledge at the base of the sniper platform and hauled himself up; snapping his arm around with a lightning fast motion, completely severing the geth's neck before diving to the floor to avoid the incoming fire.

'Okay, they're down. Feel free to join the party any time you like Shepard.' he said over the comms; and within seconds he heard them join the fight. John watched the red icons on his HUD blinking out rapidly; within seconds the squad had cut down over half of the hostiles. As soon as the geth stopped shooting at him he jumped from the tower and sprinted over to the nearest geth. Bringing both blades to bear he cut through geth's arms and kicked it over the edge of the quarry. Without a pause he ran to the next geth which was already aiming its rifle at him. Just before John reached the geth it opened fire, his shields buzzing loudly in process. He watched the shields indicator on his HUD draining rapidly. All at once the shields gave out and he felt a shot penetrate the armour of his left shoulder; another shot hit him in the chest but the armour stopped it just short of his flesh. Before the geth could get another shot off he sent his fist straight through its torso. As it fell to the ground he drew his pistol and shot a third geth repeatedly until it fell under the force of his barrage. John glanced at his radar readout and saw that all targets had been eliminated so he decided to wait for the rest of his squad to catch up. When they did Kaidan approached him and withdrew a medi-gel canister from his pack.

'I saw you take a shot to your shoulder.' he explained, 'hold still, this won't take a second.' as soon as he applied the medi-gel John moved on.

'According to Joker's map the dig site should be just around this corner.' he said. They walked towards the entrance, wary of more geth and as soon as they had made it to a stack of boxes their fears were confirmed. A drop ship soared overhead, leaving behind a squad of the machines and an armature. Almost immediately it fired its plasma mortar at Tali.

'NO!' John shouted in horror as he made the decision to honour his promise to her. He would not let her die. John threw her to the ground just in time to save her from the blast as instead it ripped through his shields and sent him flying backwards, throwing him against the rocks. Hard. He felt pain all over as his ribs began throbbing. Fighting through the pain he rose to his feet and drew his sniper rifle. Gritting his teeth he took aim; all he saw was the armature, there was nothing else. Time slowed down for him as he engaged the assassination protocol on his rifle and pulled the trigger. The shot pierced the geth's shields and sent metal flying everywhere, exposing the sensitive wiring around its 'head'. But it wasn't dead yet. He pulled back on the loader and aimed again, watching as the machine readied its plasma mortar for another shot. The geth fired its weapon.

'Die you son of a bitch.' he said under his breath and pulled the trigger. The bullet ignited the plasma ball, causing it to explode in the geth's face; destroying it instantly. He slumped back against the rocks and slid to the floor, grunting in pain. Suddenly, Kaidan was standing over him, medi-gel in hand. He felt it stop his bleeding as he realised that he must have taken quite a few shots from the other geth platforms. Blinking a few times to clear his vision he looked out over the battlefield. The fighting was over and the corpses of lifeless geth littered the courtyard. The rest of the team was staring at him in awe. They had just seen him survive a plasma mortar shot and numerous bullet wounds to single-handedly take down an armature. The only one not staring was Tali; she was looking down at her feet in shame, he had saved her life and she was ashamed that he had risked himself to save her. When Kaidan took a step back Garrus helped him to his feet and Wrex looked him over.

'You've got a quad human, not many could survive that.' he said with begrudging respect.

'Takes a lot more than that to bring me down.' John replied, 'come on, we've still got to find Liara.'

* * *

><p>Liara tried once again to use her biotic powers on the controls but as every time before it was to no avail. She let out a small sigh and resigned herself to waiting. Either she would starve to death or the geth would find some way to extract her, neither option was very pleasant but it couldn't be helped. <em>Oh goddess, I don't want to die! <em>She thought as she struggled to keep her breathing level. She heard a noise from above her but she couldn't identify what it was. Then it came again, and again. _Gunfire!_ She realised, _could this mean that someone is coming to save me?_ She heard the sounds getting closer before stopping. Then she heard an almighty clanging noise not that far from her location and held her breath in anticipation. She almost exploded when she saw a very strange group indeed clamber down the rubble to her. Four humans, a quarian, a turian and a krogan; very strange indeed. _Still, beggars can't be choosers, as the humans say._

'Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped I need help!' She said desperately. One of the female humans walked over to the barrier.

'Are you okay? What happened to you?' she asked.

'This thing I am in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need your help to get me out of it. All right?' she went on to tell the human about how she had gotten trapped while trying to protect herself from the geth, her voice barely containing her fear at the situation. One of the male humans walked over, his armour bore the signs of a recent battle; several sections of the chest had caved in and the armour was riddled with dozens of holes. His big grey eyes seemed to be looking into her very soul as he began talking.

'Don't worry Miss T'Soni, we will find a way to get you out of there. Just hold tight, we'll have you out in no time.' and with that they moved on, deeper into the cavern. Liara was so excited that somebody had come to rescue her at last that she barely noticed the gunshots from below her. Then she began to doubt herself. _Why were they here? How did they know my name? Oh goddess what if they're worse than the geth? _Thoughts like those occupied her mind for some time until she was startled out of her reverie by what sounded like reality tearing asunder. Within a few seconds the deafening noise was gone and had been replaced by silence. The only sound Liara could hear was her own ragged breathing and almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone behind her. She turned her head around to see the group from before standing there. Her heart leaped into her throat as she had to fight hard to stop herself from crying.

'How…how did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barrier!'

'How do we get you down?' asked the male with the battered armour.

'That console over there will do it.' she said in a shaky voice.

'Wait! Commander, can we trust her? Her mother is working with Saren after all.' said the turian in their company. She felt anger and shame at the mention of her mother. She was just about to respond when those hard grey eyes kept her attention and she found her protest dying in her throat. He looked at her for a long time before saying in a very quiet voice,

'We can trust her. The geth wouldn't be after her if she was working with Saren.' she felt a great weight lift from her shoulders as he said those words and deactivated the shield. As they stepped onto the elevator the ground beneath them began to shake.

'Aw crap, I knew using that mining laser was just going to bring us trouble.' she heard the turian say from behind her.

'Well I didn't see you coming up with any ideas Garrus.' the man replied.

'Hey, I'm just here to look good, you're the one who comes up with the plans.' Liara just hurried over to the console as she heard the female say something to a man called Joker. As the elevator reached the top of the shaft there were a krogan and a squad of geth waiting for them. Liara felt her heart sink as they attack; she cowered behind the console, trying not to get shot. Suddenly a pair of feet came into view: it was the krogan. He was pointing his shotgun at her with an evil grin on his face. Liara's heart sank as she realised she was going to die, but before he pulled the trigger the human female tackled him to the ground. She watched on in fear as the two wrestled with each other; the human speared the krogan in its eye with a combat knife.

With an almighty roar the krogan threw her off and grabbed his shotgun. As the woman got to her feet the krogan shot her through her midriff, sending blood everywhere. Liara gasped in revulsion as the woman staggered; clearly hurt by the blast, but before the krogan could finish her she ran forwards, pistol in hand, and pinned the krogan down. The woman put the barrel of her gun right into the yellow hole where the krogan's eye used to be and pulled the trigger over and over again, not stopping until the beast stopped moving. Without a word she hauled herself to her feet before picking Liara up and running for the mouth of the cave. Even as wounded as she was she was still fast on her feet; making it to the exit in mere seconds. Liara heard the cave system collapse behind them as the woman gently set her down. They all stood gasping for breath as a frigate flew overhead. Suddenly, the male with the grey eyes fell to the floor, completely unconscious.


	4. Chapter 4: Injuries

Tali stood there motionless; she couldn't believe what was happening. Commander Thompson, the man who had saved her life twice was lying on one of the beds in the Normandy's med bay; Shepard was standing in the corner of the room, waiting anxiously for Thompson's condition to stabilise before she would accept treatment. The rest of the team were also there, crowding into the small room, worried for their Commanders. Tali could see Liara in a similar state of distress and she felt her anger rise, _If it wasn't for you she wouldn't be like this you stupid bosh'tet! Why did you let that krogan get to you! It's your fault._ But then she felt only shame and remorse, _I'm not any better, why did I let the armature shoot at me? Why couldn't I get out of the way? Stupid._ She thought bitterly. Doctor Chakwas was beginning to remove Thompson's armour with a cutting laser as she prepared a heavy dose of sedative. Suddenly Thompson grabbed her hand, startling everyone as they had thought he had lost consciousness.

'No sedatives.' he said in a steady voice, seemingly oblivious to his situation, 'Check my medical files.' Chakwas nodded to Kaidan to find them as she continued to cut through his armour. Tali held her breath when she saw Kaidan returning with a data pad in hand. After a few seconds of reading the doctor seemed to find what she was looking for as she gave him back the data.

'He's hypersensitive to sedatives and pain killers, if we give him even a small dose in the state he's in it will stop his heart.' she said in her calm, reassuring voice. Tali's eyes widened in shock as she realised that this meant any surgery he would have to undergo would be extremely painful for him. Finally the laser cut through the seals on his armour, causing it to fall off all at once. Everyone in the room let out a collective gasp as they saw him underneath the armour. This was for two reasons: first, his undershirt was covered in blood and riddled with holes. Second, his right arm and leg were made of metal.

'Cybernetic limbs?' Tali heard Chakwas say under her breath, 'definitely not in the record.' Thompson didn't respond, choosing to just stare at the ceiling.

'Alright everyone, the doctor needs space so I want everyone in the briefing room pronto.' Shepard said, ushering them out of the med bay and towards the stairs. Tali could hear the others talking about Commander Thompson, whether they thought that he would survive and where he had gotten his cybernetic limbs from but she didn't pay any attention to them; she was more occupied by her thoughts. She couldn't shake the feeling of grief over his injuries, which felt strange to her. _Why should I care so much about him? Would I be as upset if anyone else was in his situation? Of course I would, I'm just worried about him because he risked his life to save me and I don't want him to die for it, that's all. _She kept reassuring herself as they waited in the briefing room. Not long after they arrived Shepard walked in, clearly having been treated; her wounds mustn't have been all that severe if the doctor had already released her.

Tali was vaguely aware of Shepard standing up and walking over to Liara but she didn't care. _No,_ she thought, bringing herself out of her trance. _I must pay attention; this is for the good of the mission._ She looked up just in time to hear Liara say 'Embrace eternity!' and turn her eyes black. Tali could remember reading somewhere that asari could bond minds to share memories; it was probably to share the vision from the beacon on Eden Prime. There was a moment of silence before Liara stepped back and started talking about it. She only got a few sentences in before nearly fainting. She was probably exhausted from being in that energy field for days without food or water. Before Shepard could say anything the door to the briefing room opened and Commander Thompson himself walked in. Tali felt her heart leap into her throat as she watched him take a few steps into the room. He was wearing shorts and nothing else, but bandages covered most of his torso. The sound of metal striking metal followed him in as his cybernetic foot hit the floor. He had a slight smile on his face and a tired glint in his eyes as he looked at each member of the startled squad. Shepard was the first one to react and she ran up to him, enveloping her arms around his chest. Tears streamed down her face as she said:

'I was so worried I was going to lose you.'

'You know it takes more than that to put me down.' Thompson stroked her hair with his good hand as he replied in his soft voice, 'And what about you? I saw you take a shotgun blast.'

'My armour protected me, there wasn't any serious damage.' There was an awkward silence as the crew waited for the end of this sudden display of emotion. Once again Tali felt her anger rise; _why am I angry? Could I be…jealous? No, that can't be right, it must be something else,_ she thought. After a few seconds Shepard untangled herself from him and stepped aside to let the rest of the squad talk. When they had finished asking their questions Shepard piped up:

'All right, crew dismissed, I need to have a talk with Thompson here.' Tali just kept her head down as they filed out of the room; she couldn't wait to be back in engineering to take her mind off the day's events.

* * *

><p>'Forgotten about something?' John said to Tali. She seemed jump slightly as he started speaking, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.'<p>

'That's okay, I was just thinking. What have I forgotten anyway?' she asked, turning towards him.

'We still haven't finished with the weapons calibrations. I can take care of them myself if you have other things to do.' she began wringing her hands together as she always did when nervous.

'No! That's fine, I'd be more than happy to help.' They spent the next few hours scrolling through the programs, barely saying a word to each other. It was as John finished a particularly lengthy and troublesome algorithm that Tali decided to break the silence.

'So, what did you talk to Shepard about?' John could tell she had been working up the courage to ask that for a long time.

'For the most part we just talked; we didn't really have time to catch up after Eden Prime.' Tali hesitated before asking her next question.

'You have a history with Shepard?' there was a slight edge to her tone as she spoke, but John barely registered it.

'I do, we've known each other since we were both about eight. We're pretty much inseparable; we grew up together, trained together and even served together until she got that medal for the Skyllian Blitz thing a few years back.'

'Oh.' Tali replied simply. She seemed rather depressed about something but John decided against asking why.

'There's one other thing, apparently we don't have any more leads for the moment so Shepard decided that we'll make our way back to the Citadel for a few days of shore leave.'

'Why? We've only been gone for a week.'

'Well I need a new suit of armour, and the rest will do my injuries some good. I've got a feeling that Shepard wants to go for more than that though.'

'Oh.' Tali said again. She seemed crestfallen and John decided that he would have to find out why. Now was not the time however and so he left it at that and returned to his work. It would seem that Tali had other things to get of her chest though as she soon started speaking again.

'You shouldn't have saved me on Therum.' she said in a quiet voice, 'You could've gotten yourself killed. I'm not worth that.' John turned to look at her with a very serious expression on his face.

'I will not have you saying that. You are no less important than any other person and I would gladly step out in front of another armature to save your life. Besides, your suit wouldn't have survived the blast even if you had; a single suit puncture and you could die. I'm a lot harder to kill though, worse things than armatures have attacked me and I'm still here to talk about it.' he said in his most gentle voice. She just nodded and went back to work. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p>They were in Flux, a night club and casino located in the upper wards. John was sitting at one of the central tables with Garrus, enjoying a few last drinks before they headed back to their hotel.<p>

'I have to admit, it's been a while since I last had the luxury of drinking.' John said to Garrus, 'Not much chance when you're on active duty.'

'I don't go out drinking much,' Garrus replied, 'not enough friends in or out of C-Sec to make it worthwhile.' he took another draught of his chosen drink; a strange blue liquid that seemed to change shade when viewed from different angles.

'Really? You strike me more as the suave, ladies' man type.' Garrus let out a short laugh before answering.

'I'm nothing like that, always felt a little awkward around women to be honest. I much prefer just sticking with my work and avoiding them completely. Mind you though there was this one woman I served with on a mission. She was something else. We were the top two hand-to-hand specialists on the ship and we needed to work off some steam so we settled on a duel.'

'A duel? Not exactly the best way to get close to women Garrus.'

'It was a turian ship, that sort of thing's normal before a mission. We were absolutely evenly matched; I had reach but she had flexibility. Anyway, long story short we ended up in a stalemate that lasted nine rounds before the referee called an end. We held a tie-breaker in her quarters; more than one way to blow off steam I guess.' John shook his head as he smiled.

'It's a wonder you're still single Garrus.'

'There's something I've been meaning to ask you.' Garrus said in a more serious tone.

'Fire away buddy, what do you want to know?'

'I want to know where the hell you learned to fight. I've seen a few different styles of combat in my time but yours is unique.' John sat back in his chair and paused for a moment before answering.

'Ever heard of a guy called Jakeiro Hiroshi?'

'Can't say that I have.'

'That doesn't surprise me; his existence isn't exactly public knowledge. When I was about two years off from joining the military I realised that I had a knack for hand-to-hand combat; people were always starting fights with me because of my cybernetic limb; I hadn't lost my arm.' he paused again to take a sip of his drink before continuing, 'One day I found myself lost on the wards not far from here and began asking people for directions. Nobody paid me any attention and I just ended up wandering around trying to find a place to stay the night. I was short on creds however and nowhere would take me. Eventually I just resigned myself to sleeping outside somewhere; it was as I sat down that he approached me.'

'Weren't you suspicious about a strange man approaching you in the middle of the night?'

'Of course I was, but I wasn't in any state to do anything about it. He offered me food and shelter for the night and I accepted, for better or worse. Turns out he had seen me fight someone in a bar earlier and saw my potential; he decided to take me on as a student. I went to him whenever I had time to learn what he had to teach. He was a master at close quarters combat and I am honoured to have been his only student.'

'So that's it? You just learned how to kick ass with those blades of yours?' Garrus seemed a bit dubious.

'That's it, no more to it. Not the most interesting story but it's the truth. How about yourself, where did you train?' They continued trading stories until late on in the night before meandering towards their hotel rooms. Garrus bade him good night and went to bed. As John crawled beneath the sheets he began to wonder whether he would be able to get any sleep tonight; his nightmares had returned, worse than ever before and he was struggling to find any time for rest. Before long his fears were confirmed as in a dream filled haze he saw flashes of his past: sand stained with blood, armoured boots approaching him, the face of his mother as a batarian pointed a rifle at her. He heard himself scream as he watched the alien pull the trigger. Once again he awoke with a start and glanced over at the clock. Two hours past midnight. John sighed as he rolled over in bed; he was wide awake again and couldn't picture himself getting any more sleep tonight. A thought struck him though as he looked at the door. Without a moment's hesitation he set off down the hallway to see his old mentor.

It didn't take him long to reach the door he knew so well. The route there was permanently etched into his memory after travelling it so many times. It was a few moments before anyone answered his knock, and he was surprised to find a turian waiting for him.

'Ah, you're the one Hiroshi mentioned, please come in.' perplexed, John followed the man into the room. It was exactly as he remembered it; weapons hung from every wall, there was a simple bed over in the opposite corner of the room and a training mat in the centre. John stood in the middle of the room as the turian went to retrieve something from under the bed. He emerged with a long, cloth wrapped bundle which he held out to John.

'Master Hiroshi passed away two years ago; I'm an acquaintance of his that he could trust to watch his place after he was gone. The Master told me that you would come searching for him one day and to give you this. Apparently it is of some significance.' John just nodded at the man and turned to leave. The turian didn't say another word as John walked through the door and made his way back to the hotel.

Back in his room John could afford to shed a single tear; his master, his mentor and the closest thing he had to a father, was dead. But John knew how to deal with loss, and he knew this day was coming, for his master had been old and frail. John looked down at the cloth bundle in his arms and began to unwrap it. His eyes widened in shock as he saw what lay within; it was a sword. John held it gingerly as he tried to comprehend why he had been given this legendary weapon; for it was not just any sword, but the symbol of the Kianos: a great line of warriors. It would seem as though Master Hiroshi had passed on his duty as a trainer to his only student; which made sense when he thought about it like that. Still, John felt an enormous sense of pride, knowing that he had been trusted with continuing on a tradition that spanned generations. He took a moment to examine the sword properly and saw that it was a longsword with an intricate tribal pattern running up the length of the blade. The crossguard was swept upwards aggressively and the pommel was set with a large sapphire. As he gripped the leather-bound hilt the sapphire began to glow; startled by this sudden change John fired up his omni-tool. He quickly ran an analysis program and found that the blade had been modified to incorporate a mass effect field generator that would sheathe the blade in power whenever it was held; the result was a blade that could cut through modern armour as if it were paper.

'Hiroshi you clever bastard.' John whispered to the empty room. Setting the blade aside he walked back over to his bed and sat down, lost in thought. _This is going to make things interesting._

* * *

><p>Garrus was lonely. It had taken him a long time to realise this but after talking with Thompson at the bar he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was not quite right. Now he was lying in bed wide awake wondering why he couldn't get to sleep. Garrus had found out what was bothering him so why couldn't he just get some rest already? He sighed and began to think about something else: Shepard. It would seem he just couldn't keep himself from thinking about her recently and it was beginning to worry him. <em>Sure she's a fine commander and strong woman, <em>he thought, _but why can't I take my mind off her? I mean, she has a great smile and when she laughs I can't help but laugh too. What's wrong with me? She's my commanding officer for fuck's sake, and a human too! I really need to get a grip. Besides, Thompson is much closer to her than I am; they've even known each other since they were kids. Then there's how she reacted when he got hurt; I don't think Shepard's the kind of person to cry over nothing and… damn it there I go again. _He got up and walked over to the window looking out over the wards. _When this is all over you can forget all about her and go find yourself a nice turian woman. _For some reason, that thought made him feel odd; like it was somehow wrong to even think about being with someone else._ Really Vakarian? You really think you have feelings for her? Stop being such a weirdo and get some sleep. _He walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge, face in hands. _I guess that's out of the question._ He thought bitterly; no way was he getting any sleep in the state he was in. With a heavy sigh he resigned himself to staying awake until he could sort out his thoughts. _This is going to be a long night._


	5. Chapter 5: The Armstrong Cluster

**Edit: **Forgot Scene breaks and left some editing things in there. Fixed now.

* * *

><p>Tali leaned against the railing, deep in thought. They were waiting for the elevator ride to the dock to end so they could return to active duty, and the rest of the ground team were with her in the elevator. As had happened all too often, she found her eyes drawn to Commander Thompson. She examined his sharp features, his hair, his wonderful grey…<em>No.<em> She thought to herself, _I've got to stop this, it isn't healthy. I'm not in love after all; I can't be, not with a human._ It was then that she noticed the package in his arms and her curiosity piqued. _What could that be?_ It was over a metre in length and wrapped in a strange cloth. She was just about to summon up the courage to ask him about it when they arrived at the Alliance dockyard. There were two human C-Sec officers facing a stack of crates further up the walkway; one of them turned when he heard the elevator arrive.

'Ah, there you are. I was going to radio you but then I heard you were already in the elevator.' the man said in a thick accent that Tali couldn't quite place; she was never good with human accents.

'Were you waiting for me?' Shepard asked, confused by what the man had said.

'No. We were waiting for Commander Thompson; you see, we have a… situation. A woman has taken a gun and hidden herself behind the boxes, she has threatened to shoot herself if anyone gets too close.' Thompson walked over to the man with a quizzical expression on his face.

'Why did you need me then?'

'The woman, she was a slave to the batarians, she was captured on Mindoir.' Thompson's back straightened almost inadvertently and his face turned almost completely white. He turned to Shepard and said in a voice that almost couldn't be heard,

'Take this, I won't be needing it.' he handed her the package he was carrying and turned back to the officer, 'What were you planning?'

'Well, we have this application of sedatives to calm her down long enough to get her to a place where she can get psychiatric help. We also have a sniper with a clear shot at her in case she poses a threat to anyone.' at that last comment Thompson's eyes became filled with a venom that he somehow kept out of his voice.

'That will not be necessary.' he said, holding out his hand. When he received the dose of sedatives he slowly proceeded towards the crates; the rest of the crew waited for him, they knew this was something he had to do alone. Tali waited with baited breath as Thompson got closer to the crates. At last he reached the edge of the crates and saw the person hiding behind them. Tali would have scarcely believed it possible but his face turned even paler.

'Talitha.' he said, his voice full of emotion, 'Poor sweet Talitha, what have they done to you?'

'S—Stop! What do you—What are you?' a voice yelled from behind the crates, distress showing clearly in her voice.

'My name is John, John Thompson. Do you remember me Talitha?'

'No! Animals don't remember, don't get names! She remembers, the masters put their symbols on her, they punish her for memories!' the voice said, getting more and more agitated. Thompson replied with a forced calm.

'Remember back; your parents, the children at the playground, they called you Talitha, didn't they?'

'Yes, they called her Talitha. Who is he that he knows?' she said, her voice slightly quieter now.

'I'm John, remember little John?'

'She remembers. She remembers John, he was always good to her, kind. But the masters, they punished kind, when she remembers water comes from her eyes and the masters beat her for wasting water. Don't remember, stupid. Stupid!'

'Don't worry Talitha, the masters won't hurt you for remembering anymore.'

'You—are John? No! the masters punish lying, stop lying! If you are John why aren't you broken, like her?' his reply was so quiet Tali barely heard it, but she thought she could make out the words '_I am broken' _before a moment of silence.

'She trusts John, he is kind, he is not like the masters. He moved on, lived on while she lay broken at the masters' feet. She wishes she could be like him. What does he want?' she said in a much less agitated voice.

'He wants to help her; I have something that will make her sleep and if she takes them, men will come. They will help her; put her back together, so she can be happy again.' there was another moment of silence before she responded.

'She has forgotten what it was like to be happy. Will she have dreams?'

'She will dream of a warm place, and when she wakes up, she will be there.'

'She would like that. She w—I want to remember me. I want to…' she was interrupted by something and there was yet another moment of silence before Thompson returned, carrying Talitha in his arms and with tears streaming unashamedly down his face. Tali found herself crying as well and was grateful for the concealing mask she wore.

'She was only six when they took her. Why the hell are we out here if we can't even keep one little girl safe?' the C-Sec officer said as Thompson gently handed the woman over.

'Don't give up hope, this is the reason we're fighting, so that girls like her can be rescued and given a chance to live their lives again.' without another word he retrieved his package from a speechless Commander Shepard and walked towards the Normandy's airlock, the rest of the team following suit.

* * *

><p>Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams sat down opposite Commander John Thompson at the table on the crew deck. It had been several hours since they had boarded the Normandy and while Shepard hadn't yet told them where they were going, Ashley had more important things on her mind. Seeing Thompson get so distressed at the dock had really disturbed her. She knew that she had feelings for him (as would any sane woman) and as such she was determined to get to the bottom of his problem. Of course, she was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't realise that as she asked her question the entire ground crew was sitting down to eat.<p>

'Hey, Thompson, do you need to talk about Mindoir?' a silence enveloped the entire crew deck as everyone stopped eating to turn their attention towards her; but she wouldn't be deterred. She watched as he slowly set down his spoon and looked her straight in the eye. His face had assumed a completely blank expression and the emotionless voice with which he spoke made his answer all the more terrible.

'Mindoir was a small colony on the edges of Terminus space, there were around a thousand people there; two hundred Alliance trained militia and eight hundred civilians. In total there were only five children in the entire colony. I was six when the batarians raided the system.' he said, pausing momentarily to collect his thoughts. Ashley just wanted to hold him and tell him it was all right but she was planted to her seat. After a few seconds he resumed his narrative.

'They rounded up their captives into two groups. The ones who resisted were executed while those who surrendered were enslaved. Both of my parents were in the militia. I watched as they were dragged to the waiting firing squad and placed against the wall. I still don't know how I did it but I managed to break free of the batarians holding me and ran towards them. The batarians caught me though and decided I was too much trouble. They cut off my leg to prevent me from escaping again and made me look my parents in the eyes as they pulled the trigger. Next thing I remember was being in my mother's arms with all the batarians dead around me. Sometime later some Alliance soldiers arrived and lifted me off world; they also gave me a cybernetic leg. That, Ashley, is the story of Mindoir.' Thompson stood up and without another word walked over to the elevator. As he left all eyes turned to her and once again Ashley cursed herself. _Why do you always get into these situations? Aw crap, I'll have to go say sorry some time._ She continued eating, trying to avoid the accusing stares; even Tali, normally unreadable through her mask, was emanating hate through her eyes. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, hushed conversation resumed. Ashley didn't pay any attention though and tried to finish her meal as soon as possible.

* * *

><p>John was typing away on his console, trying to make some progress on his calibrations but he was having no luck; there was a particularly troublesome targeting algorithm that stubbornly refused to acknowledge the nature of their drive core. He would have to get Tali to help him when she had finished eating. John heard the door open and somebody walked in.<p>

'Are you alright?' it was Shepard, she was obviously worried about his display of emotion earlier.

'Absolutely fine.' he said curtly, not wanting to get into a conversation about his past again.

'You're sure? I've never heard you tell that story to anyone, not even me.' he felt her hand on his arm, 'John, do you need to talk?'

'No Jane, I do not. It's history now, I've gotten over it, it won't affect my performance.'

'Well, if ever you need to talk about it, you know where to find me.' John just nodded as Shepard walked out of engineering. _Why can't they just leave me alone? My past is behind me, it's not relevant. Talitha prompted a moment of weakness; I shall have to be more careful in the future, Shepard needs me to stay strong and I can't let her down. _He moved on to another program and tried to occupy his mind with the repetitive tasks. Sometime later he was aware of somebody behind him; he was so engrossed in his programing that he hadn't noticed them enter. John waited for a few seconds to see what would happen and the person didn't leave, so he knew they wanted to talk to him. Letting out a low sigh he turned to see who it was. It was Tali.

'Well?' he asked simply, crossing his arms.

'I just wanted you to know that I think what Ashley did was wrong.' she blurted out. John stared into her helmet, examining her. _So young. _He thought, _So naïve._

'I don't blame her, you're my crewmates, you deserve to know about my past.' he said, 'Anyway, that's not important. Did Shepard say where we are headed?'

'She said that there were reports of geth activity in the Armstrong Cluster and we're going to investigate.' Tali began to turn around but John stopped her.

'Hey, do you think you could help me? Firing algorithm one-eighty-four B is giving me some trouble.' she looked into his eyes and looked like she was going to say something, but simply nodded and walked over to his console. _Geth activity; good, I need to shoot something._

* * *

><p><em>John prepared himself for being shot, for the pain of death, but it never came. He heard a sound like metal hitting metal and then gunshots. He opened his eyes to see two white-armoured legs in front of him. He began to look upwards, fearful of the stranger. The person was female; which seemed strange to him. John prepared himself for what seemed inevitable, but then he looked into her eyes. She was quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her soft, effeminate features were outlined by golden hair but what caught his attention were her eyes; eyes that seemed to be a window into her very soul. A shiver went up his spine as he lost herself in those sky blue orbs. Slowly the woman extended her arm, offering him her hand.<em>

_'Don't be afraid, you're safe now.' she said in an incredibly soft voice. Without understanding why, John knew he could trust her with his life. He grasped her hand and she pulled him to his feet._

John woke up less agitated than usual; it had been a long time since his dreams were as peaceful as that one. He sighed at the memory, remembering vividly lying in his dead mother's arms as the Alliance came to his rescue. He opened the door to the sleeper pod and stretched the kinks out of his back. _The pods may be practical, but they sure as hell aren't comfortable._ John thought as he made his way towards the food dispenser. As he sat down to eat he began reflecting on the last few missions; they had already taken down two of the geth bases, the bases on Casbin and Antibaar hadn't yielded any useful information. John hoped they'd be able to find the main geth base soon as he was getting tired of recon duty and couldn't wait to get into some close quarters combat.

'Hey Thompson, I'm sorry for asking you about Mindoir'. John looked up to see Ashley standing there. He was surprised that she would apologise now; it had been several days since she had asked and he had all but forgotten about it.

'It's no trouble Williams, you have a right to know.' he said.

'Still, I didn't mean to upset you like that. I hope we can put this behind us.' she shifted her weight, uncomfortable with the whole situation.

'Already done Williams. Now why don't you sit down and we can trade stories, I'd like to learn a bit more about you.' she smiled and began to respond but was interrupted by Shepard's voice coming over the intercom.

'Alright everyone, we're nearing Rayingri now. I want everybody to be ready in five minutes.' John sighed as he stood up.

'Another time then.' Ashley flashed him a quick smile before heading off to get her gear. John returned the tray before walking over to the elevator to suit up. He went over the standard plan one more time in his head; he would hard-drop as close to the geth position as possible while the rest of the team would be deposited in the Mako wherever they could find a safe landing zone. John would give tactical feedback and reconnaissance while they approached and when they arrived he would offer sniper support while they took out everything they could in their vehicle. When the elevator arrived he walked over to his locker and began assembling his armour. He looked reluctantly at the sword he still hadn't had a chance to use and sighed as he hoped its time would come very soon. Even though none of the missions so far had allowed him to use the sword he still took it along, just in case something went wrong. When he had finished arming himself he turned around to see the rest of the squad being briefed by Shepard. He looked at the cargo bay doors and waited patiently for them to open. Sure enough, a few minutes later the doors open and Joker chimed over the radio.

'This is your stop Thompson, good luck out there.' without a word he leaped from the ship and was enveloped in the sound of air rushing past his helmet. From his vantage point in the sky he could make out the location of the base; it was on the top of the highest mountain in the area so sniper cover would be out of the question. He aimed towards the peak and fired his deceleration thrusters. As he approached the ground he readied his stealth field generator in case there were any geth platforms in the area. With a bone-jarring thump he hit the ground, causing dust to fly in all directions. Springing to his feet he surveyed his surroundings and found that there wasn't a single geth to be seen. There were, however, plenty of dragon's teeth spikes. _Thank the spirits I didn't land on one of those._ He thought as he began to search for a path for the Mako to get up.

'Thompson here Shepard, the base is at the top of a mountain, there is a facility running into the rock where the geth will likely be hiding. Looks like you can take the Mako up the south side of mountain. Sending you coordinates now. What are your orders?' he said over the radio. A few seconds later Shepard's voice sounded through his earpiece.

'Roger that, thanks for the info. Wait for us to get there; we should only be five minutes.' John sighed as he resigned himself to waiting. He decided to draw his sword and examine it. Once again it began to glow and John thought of the man who had wielded it before him. Master Hiroshi was truly an expert; all of his predecessors had been, but he had never used this weapon in real combat. John began going through his meditation ritual to pass the time, swinging the sword in ever more intricate manoeuvres as he emptied his mind of all thought. It seemed like only a few seconds passed before he could hear the sound of an engine and just as he put the sword away the Mako appeared. He waited patiently as the vehicle pulled up just short of the dragon's teeth and the crew started to disembark. John attracted a few strange looks and he realised that the rest of the crew had no knowledge of the sword.

'What's that?' Shepard asked him.

'It's a sword. It cuts things.' he said sarcastically. Shepard just crossed her arms and waited for a serious answer, 'All right, it was Master Hiroshi's, he left it to me.' she nodded, satisfied by his answer and walked over to the door.

The base was quiet; which meant nothing as the geth make very little noise. They slowly advanced into what appeared to be quite a large room, though it was hard to tell because there were so many objects obstructing their view. As they reached the centre of the room a horde of husks burst out from the cover and charged them. John raised his pistol and put a bullet through the head of the leading husk. Just as he aimed at the one to its left Wrex charged forward and tore into it with his shotgun before throwing another into the wall with biotics. Another husk ran up behind him but was met with John's sword; as he sliced through its neck John span around to see if there were any other husks but the rest of the team had already finished them off. Without a word they cautiously advanced through the base until they had reached the final rooms; there were no more signs of geth activity. An uneasy feeling spread up John's spine as they made their way back to the entrance, but he decided not to give voice to his fears, as he knew that the others would be having the same thoughts. They cautiously exited the building and spread out onto the mountain but there wasn't anything there.

They were just about to give up and leave when a geth drop ship soared overhead, depositing dozens of geth platforms all around them. John drew his sword and prepared for a fight but became suddenly paralysed when he saw a geth prime only a few feet from Tali. Time almost stopped as he watched the geth pull the trigger and the bullet went clean through Tali's shoulder, sending purple blood everywhere. John felt an almighty rage building within him, a blazing inferno of fury. Everything went silent and he could see only his target; the geth prime had begun to move towards Tali, attempting to finish her off. With a blood-curdling roar John sprang into action, closing the distance to the geth in seconds. When it realised he was approaching it began to turn towards him but it was too late; nothing would deny him his target. The geth's sluggish movements were completely futile as John sent his sword whistling through the air. When the tip of the blade impacted with the geth's oculus it sent sparks flying as the entire head exploded in a shower of metal and conductive fluid. Without pausing John span around and lunged at another geth platform, piercing its chest with the blade on his left wrist. Inverting the grip on his sword he sent it hurtling through its hip, severing it at the leg. He cartwheeled over the geth's still falling corpse and ran his sword through a rocket geth's midriff. John turned to face the enemy, searching with a desperate need for another target, another kill. His eyes swept over the mountain but found no more geth platforms. All at once the world rushed back to him and a roaring noise filled his ears. He noticed the ground getting closer as exhaustion filled his form; John's mind emptied of thought as everything around him turned black.

* * *

><p>Hushed voices assailed him as he floated in a sea of darkness. He could barely make out any words but he knew what they were saying from their tone. <em>You killed me. <em>He heard from behind him. As he turned he was confronted with a woman's alabaster face; coloured with the pallor of death. He felt all warmth drain from him when he realised who it was.

'Samantha?' he said, despair filling his voice as she turned away from him. He reached out to her but it was useless; he was being restrained. When he looked to see who was restraining him he saw Corporal Toombs standing there, his eyes full of accusation. John tried to scream but no noise escaped his throat as he sank further into the darkness. An eternity later the silence was broken once again with hushed voices, but these voices were different. They were neither accusatory nor filled with sorrow. Slowly, a light began to grow and John was pulled back into the world as if from a great distance. He blinked a few times as he tried to get his bearings. He recognised the room as the med bay on the Normandy. John looked for the source of the voices and saw Shepard and Chakwas talking by the corner of his bed. Suddenly his memories returned and he sat bolt upright.

'Where's Tali? What happened to her?' he almost shouted at them, startling the two women considerably. He tried to get up but Shepard held him back, trying to calm him.

'She's fine, just got a minor infection.' when John heard that he collapsed back onto the bed. Doctor Chakwas walked over to his side and motioned for Shepard to leave.

'Actually I'm more concerned about you. Shepard tells me that something drastic happened to you on Rayingri. Can you remember what happened?' confused, John threw his mind back to the end of the mission but it was all a blur. He remembered Tali getting shot and a feeling of anger but everything beyond that was blank. He shook his head and Chakwas frowned before speaking again, 'Apparently your sword became wreathed in a blue flame and you moved impossibly fast, when you had finished fighting you passed out from exhaustion.' John's mind reeled as he tried to process this.

'You think I'm a biotic?' he asked in a whisper. Chakwas nodded and pulled out a notepad.

'I took some readings and detected a small number of eezo modules spread throughout your body. They were well hidden, which is probably why they escaped the attention of military physicians, but they are definitely there. Something's different about them though, they don't seem to react in the same way as the modules in other biotics. If I'm right, your powers are going to be very different from any other, we'll have to do some research to find out.'

'How long have I been out?' he asked.

'You've been out for almost twenty four hours.'

'So I've missed the last mission?' he asked with a hint of bitterness.

'You have, but Alenko discovered a signal leading to a moon called Solcrum, we're heading there now. You should be battle ready by the time we arrive.' John nodded, satisfied that he would be fighting again before long.

'What about Tali?'

'She will make a full recovery, but she won't be combat-ready for a week or so; she got a nasty infection from the suit puncture, but it could have been much worse.' John felt a sense of relief wash over him and he got up to return to his station.

* * *

><p>Tali sighed to herself as she tried to concentrate; she couldn't wait for the ground crew to return. They were currently in orbit around Solcrum, awaiting the completion of their final mission in the Armstrong Nebula. She wished she could be down there with them, killing geth. Then she thought of Commander Thompson. <em>What if he's hurt? What if he's trapped and I could have helped him?<em> She began to panic, her breathing getting rapid and her movements becoming erratic. _No, he'll be fine, he always comes back from a mission._

'Tali?' she heard from behind her. She almost jumped out of her suit at the sudden disturbance. When she turned around Thompson was standing before her with a smile on his face, 'Are you okay?' he asked.

'Fine. I'm fine, I just didn't hear you come in.' they must have completed the mission while she was deep in thought.

'Oh, okay then.' he said, turning back towards his terminal.

'Was there something you wanted?' Thompson snapped his fingers before turning back to her.

'Yes! I have this for you, just don't tell anyone.' he said with a wink before handing her an OSD. Confused, she took the OSD and began examining it. Before long she managed to find out the nature of the information on the disk. She almost fainted with shock at seeing the magnitude of the discovery.

'Thompson, do you know what's on this?' he looked over at her with a mischievous glint in his eye.

'Why I do believe it's some information on the geth.'

'It chronicles the entire history of geth evolution since the rebellion! This could be the most important find in our history!' she could scarcely believe that he would give this to her so casually.

'Well then, wouldn't it just be a perfect gift for your pilgrimage?'

'Better than perfect! But won't you get into trouble for giving me this?' Why was hedoing this for her?

'That's why we have to keep it our little secret.' Tali couldn't wrap her mind around the possibility of someone, anyone, being so generous. He was quite possibly the kindest man she had ever known; to just hand her a copy of information that could get him court-marshalled in disgrace to help her pilgrimage. She simply said 'Thank you' before returning to her work, but try as she might she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was then that she decided to do the most rash and possibly foolish thing she had done to date.

'Do you love anyone?' she had no idea what had caused her to ask that question and immediately regretted doing so. She was grateful for the mask because it hid her embarrassment; she was about to apologise when she looked over and noticed the distant look in his eyes, like he was remembering something. She could see the conflict between joy and sorrow raging in those big grey orbs of his and stood captivated. She had no idea how long they stood in silence before he replied.

'Once, long ago, I was in love. That's over now.' Tali knew he wasn't telling her something but decided to leave it at that; already chastising herself regarding her audacity she decided to start uploading the data from the OSD to her omni-tool. _Well, you just ruined your chances of being friends with him. Stupid bosh'tet, why did you ask that? It's not the sort of thing you discuss. Things are only going to be awkward from now on._


	6. Chapter 6: Free Time

**Author's Note: **This chapter is something a bit different, got the idea after reading masses to masses 2 by iNf3ctioNZ and I hope it isn't too terrible. On other news I am changing the rating from mature to teen. The reason for this is as follows: I wrote a mature scene the other day. It was abysmal. I hope this doesn't upset anybody but I just don't think that I could do the characters the justice they deserve in those scenes. As always please R&R, it is greatly appreciated.

* * *

><p><em>Well, that was unexpected. <em>John thought, staring at his terminal. He gave it another check but the results came back exactly the same: all of the programs had been fully optimised. This was causing a bit of a conflict in his mind as he fully expected the last hundred or so algorithms to take another week of his time but evidently the previous calibration had done his work for him. Normally John would be thrilled to see this but he realised that there was now nearly nothing for him to do on board the Normandy, which concerned him greatly. _I never thought I'd miss the prospect of spending hours calibrating, good thing Garrus isn't in this situation; he'd be heartbroken._ John thought to himself; Garrus had already established that he was more than happy to spend every waking minute working on the Mako. He glanced around the engineering deck, trying to think of something he could do to occupy his time but no ideas came to mind; the Normandy was an Alliance vessel so there was very little to do for entertainment on board and with a full complement of crew there were few stations left unattended. John looked down at his omni-tool to check the time. 13:01, time for lunch. He glanced over to his shoulder to see if Tali had already left and sure enough her place was empty. Without further ado John walked over to the elevator and hit the button for the crew deck.

The rest of the ground crew had assembled at the table by the time John sat down. Even with all those people sitting there conversation was kept to a minimum; not out of requirement, just because nobody seemed to feel the need to talk. As John began eating, however, he noticed that Kaiden was staring at him pretty intently.

'Is there something you wanted?' he asked the biotic.

'Well, the mood here is pretty gloomy and I just thought a good tale would cheer things up a little; I'm sure you have a few entertaining stories to tell.' Everybody went quiet and looked at John, to see what his reaction would be. He kept a straight face for a few seconds while pretending to mull it over; John couldn't resist telling a good story, but then the crew didn't know that. After a moment of silence he sat back in his chair and voiced his reply.

'All right then, I think there are a few missions that might be of some interest. But first, you'll need some background information. What do you know of Project Vindicare?' The blank looks directed at him revealed their lack of knowledge, 'Project Vindicare was started to give the Alliance a group of elite assassins, prepared for the most suicidal odds and sent on deep cover missions to infiltrate alien worlds. The members of the Project were very carefully chosen because they needed to find two people at a time with the correct set of skills.'

'Wait, why two people?' Ashley asked.

'Because we had to work in pairs.' John replied, 'Each member had to rely on their partner, trust them implicitly and know each other like brothers, which made it extremely difficult to locate viable candidates. As it happened, I was close friends with a man called Jason Marston; we were both infiltration and hand-to-hand experts, which made us perfect choices. Anyway, enough introduction, on to the real story.' John paused for a moment to take a draught of his drink and observe his audience. All conversation had stopped and they were hanging on his every word, waiting for the real story, 'One of our more…interesting missions took place on Tuchanka of all places.'

'Tuchanka?' Wrex asked, sounding surprised, 'Why would the Alliance send you to Tuchanka?'

'A krogan warlord was becoming a bit too influential for our liking, so we were sent to watch him, find out what he was planning and why he was gaining an advantage. It was one hell of a mission.'

* * *

><p>'Well Jason, what now?' John asked, his voice sounding slightly synthetic as it passed through his helmet's vocal enhancer.<p>

'We need to find out where Koth is and why he never turned up.' the other man replied. They were hidden in the rubble surrounding the remains of a krogan warehouse waiting for Warlord Koth to arrive and meet his bodyguard.

'Maybe they're onto us.'

'Not possible, there was no way they could have detected us. We just need to make our way back to his headquarters and see what's going on.' John sighed as he began to climb back down the rubble; it was another day's journey back to the ruined fortress inhabited by Clan Garstet and they were running short on rations and would have to go out hunting. That meant two days until they could find out what happened to the meeting.

'What I wouldn't give for a good pizza right now.' John said mournfully as he looked down at the meagre remains of their food supply.

'Look on the bright side mate, the amount of danger pay we're getting from this should buy us more food than you could eat in a lifetime.'

'I don't know about that, I can eat a hell of a lot when I put my mind to it.'

'You're telling me! Ever since we got out of boot camp you've been packing it away, in fact, I think you've been gaining weight.' John self-consciously looks down at his waistline.

'Oh please, you're a fine one to talk, drinking yourself into a stupor every time we get any breaks.'

'If it weren't for me you'd never go out drinking at all! Besides, you weren't complaining when I picked up those two asari.'

'What, the ones who tried to mug us?' John said incredulously.

'They did what?' Jason asked.

'I guess you were too out of it to remember that bit: we got halfway back before they pulled out pistols and tried to take our credits. It's only because I hadn't had anything to drink that I managed to convince them to bother somebody else before dragging your sorry arse back home.' Jason just shook his head as they made their way across the desolate wasteland that was Tuchanka. It was going to be a long walk.

'You take the ones on the right, I'll go left.' John heard his partner whisper. They had found a pack of wild varren nesting in a cave formed by a collapsed road and decided it was time to expand their rations. John crept towards the rearmost varren on his side with extreme care; while the stealth field disguised him from view, he knew that varren had exceptional hearing and one misplaced step could alert them to his presence. Their tactic was to envelop them and then kill as many as possible, as quickly as possible. Simple, but effective because the varren were awake and killing any would cause the pack to attack them. John stood behind his target, silently extending his blades while he waited for Jason to get into position. They would have to work fast once the pack was alert because they couldn't use their guns; Clan Garstet was far too close for comfort.

There was a flicker on his HUD as a countdown timer appeared. John readied himself for the fight ahead as the timer approached zero. _Three…Two…One!_ John sprang into action, reaching his arm around the throat of his varren and cutting its throat with one swift movement. With reactions faster than he would have thought possible the nearby varren charged him; he counted four coming for him and five going for Jason. The first of his assailants jumped for his throat with incredible speed. Fast as it was though, John was faster; with a swift movement he brought his fist up and into the beast's windpipe, sending his blade straight through its skull. He quickly brought his arm back and let the corpse fall before delivering a devastating kick to the next varren's ribs with his cybernetic leg, sending it hurtling through the air before it impacted with the wall of the impromptu cave with a sickening crunch. The third varren was quickly dispatched with a blade to the eye but as John turned to face the fourth it clamped down on his right arm. Hard. John held back his cry of pain as he felt the teeth pierce his muscle; gritting his teeth John grasped the back of the varren's skull with his free hand and twisted both arms with all his strength. He heard the neck snap as his arm bent at an unnatural angle. He quickly applied medi-gel to the wound before turning to see that his friend had already dispatched his targets. Without a word John began cutting into the varren to collect his new rations when he felt a chill go down his spine.

With an almighty roar the varren charged down the edge of the cave; John barely had time to get his bearings before they were upon them. Six varren led by an alpha, this was going to be a tough fight. Just as he prepared to fight the lesser varren the alpha leapt onto his chest, knocking him to the ground. John struggled to keep the huge beast at bay as it snapped at his head and clawed at his chest but slowly, with an almighty effort, he managed to begin pushing the alpha back. He knew that one wrong move meant death so he decided he would do something incredibly risky to end the confrontation as soon as possible. He quickly delivered a heavy punch to the side of the creature's head, dazing it for a split second. That tiny delay was all he needed as he grasped the alpha's upper and lower jaws, one in each hand, and pulled them apart with incredible force. Before the varren could even react John snapped its jaw and left it writhing on the ground. He surveyed the battlefield quickly and saw that there were only two varren left and they were going after Jason, confident in their leader's abilities. Without pause John ran over to the nearest one and stabbed it between its ribs while his partner pummelled the final varren into a bloody pulp. Silence descended upon the cave as both men looked at each other. Both sank to the floor, chests heaving from exhaustion as a new sound washed over the grim scene; it was the sound of two men laughing over a job well done.

* * *

><p>'Two humans took down fifteen varren and an alpha without firing a single bullet?' Wrex asked. The entire crew were staring with open mouths upon hearing Thompson's story; it was an incredible claim, but no one doubted it was the truth.<p>

'That we did, though that was hardly the most remarkable part of _that_ mission.' John replied with the slightest hint of a smile.

'You mentioned that you hadn't lost your arm yet, when did you lose it?' Ash pipes up. John feels the slightest twinge of emotion as that evokes a memory best left hidden, but he stifles it before it can show on his face.

'That's a story for another time. Speaking of time, we should be getting back to our posts.' There is a collective groan as John stands up to return his empty tray. The rest of the squad begins to disperse, apart from Shepard who walks over to talk to him.

'Great story, haven't heard anything about you and Vindicare before though. Should've known you and Jason would have gotten yourselves into trouble as soon as my back was turned.' John tried to assume his most hurt expression as he replied.

'How was I supposed to know that there was an alpha nearby? Besides, you weren't exactly in the safest of positions yourself, what with all the hostilities between the Alliance and the merc groups.' Shepard just smiled before asking her next question.

'How are those calibrations going?'

'Just finished them today, actually, and now I have nothing to do.'

'Well, you could always talk to the crew, get to know them better.' John nods thoughtfully at this; he had been planning on talking to them all individually at some point and he might as well make good use of his free time, 'Besides, I'm sure that after the next mission something will happen to give you a way of whittling away the hours.'

'You know something I don't?' John asks suspiciously.

'No, but something's bound to come up in engineering to occupy your time with; if you're really bored you could come talk to me, my door is always open.' John smiles his thanks before heading back towards the elevator; he might just take Shepard up on that offer.

'What do you want?' Wrex said in a gruff voice.

'Charming as always Wrex.' John says under his breath.

'I'm a krogan, what do you expect?'

'I've found stereotypes are rarely accurate, the very fact that you're on the same ship as Garrus proves that you are more than what the galaxy sees.' John thought he saw a smile creep onto the edges of the krogan's face but it was gone immediately.

'Give me time, human.' John shook his head before continuing.

'You won't kill Garrus, even you know there's no point to it.'

'It'll be a good fight, that's all the reason I need.' John almost laughed at Wrex's obvious attempt at intimidating him.

'No Wrex, it's not and you know that. I've seen you fight and I know that while you enjoy a good fight as much as the next krogan you show remarkable self-control.

'You don't live for a thousand years without picking up on a few things, and self-control is one of the first things you learn if you want to survive.'

'Surprising that so few krogan appreciate that.' John thought he saw a sad glint in Wrex's eye as he began to answer.

'The genophage may be what's infecting us but it's not what's killing us; most krogan care more about fighting than keeping our race alive. That's why I left Tuchanka; my own father tried to kill me because my ideas were too radical for the more short sighted amongst my kin.'

'I heard about that while I was hunting Warlord Koth, you're something of a legend, you know that?'

'Still? That was hundreds of years ago, would've thought they'd forgotten me by now.'

'Nope, last time I checked everybody was waiting around anxiously for you to come back and take control of the strongest clan on Tuchanka.'

'Urdnot is the strongest clan?' Wrex asked, shocked by this revelation.

'That they are; greatest numbers and best tacticians.'

'Really? Interesting…' it was obvious that Wrex wanted to end the conversation so John bid him farewell and turned his attention to the next member of the crew: Ashley Williams.

'How's it going Ash?' she turned to face him almost immediately, clearly unsurprised by his presence.

'Not bad, how about yourself? You've taken more than a few knocks these last couple of missions.'

'I've lived through worse.'

'Like the alpha varren?' she asked with a smirk.

'Yeah, like the alpha varren.'

'You're damn good in hand-to-hand Thompson, where'd you learn to fight?'

'Guy named Hiroshi taught me, if you like my method so much maybe I could give you pointers sometime.' John replied, a smile spreading across his face.

'Oh really? Well doesn't that sound tempting? I think I can give you a run for your money though.'

'Maybe we should organise a sparring match then? I relish a good challenge.'

'How about after our next mission? It would give Joker time to prepare odds and get everybody to place bets.'

'Of course, wouldn't want to spring this on them without warning. Until then, Ash.' she nods at John before returning to her weapons. His next stop was Garrus, who was standing at his usual spot, next to the Mako. He must have heard John approaching because he turned around before John had said anything.

'Thompson, something I can do for you?'

'Just wanted to see how you were settling in; can't be easy, being the only turian on an Alliance frigate.'

'It's not too bad here, nobody's given me any bother, and even Wrex is giving me some space. Have to say though, I could get used to this whole spectre thing; sometimes it felt like the red tape was helping criminals and stopping me from doing my job.'

'I never had to deal with that kind of thing myself, they weren't too big on rules in Project Vindicare. Still, you tend to find it's there for a reason, maybe if there were more rules and red tape regarding spectres we wouldn't be in this situation.'

'I guess I can see where you're coming from.' Garrus said begrudgingly, 'What was it like, being in Project Vindicare? No rules or regulations to prevent you from doing your job; must have been something else.'

'It certainly created some interesting stories. Speaking of stories, you must have some interesting tales from your time in C-Sec.'

'Well, there was this elcor serial killer, and then a salarian organ harvester. I'll have to tell you about them later, for now though I've got some calibrations to run.' John felt slightly disappointed that Garrus wasn't going to tell him just yet but he left regardless. Next on his list was Tali so he walked into the engineering deck and was once again awed by the size of the drive core. He took a few seconds to admire the highly advanced technology before sneaking up behind their resident quarian; she was working on a faulty capacitor subsystem and as such paid little heed to the world around her. John watched her for a few more seconds before clearing his throat to announce his presence. Tali almost jumped out of her suit before turning around to see John with a massive smile on his face.

'Don't scare me like that, it's not funny.' Tali crossed her arms, 'So was there a reason for you doing that or do you just like startling quarians?'

'Well, since the firing algorithms have sorted themselves out I thought I would use my free time to get to know the crew better.'

'Oh, so you won't be working down here anymore?' John wasn't sure but he thought he could hear a slightly sad note in her answer.

'I never said that, I mean there's got to be other things I could help with, if you need any that is.'

'Of course, we could always use your help.' Tali's answer came a bit too quickly.

'Then I shall continue to work down here, I hope you don't mind if I talk to the rest of the crew first though.' to be completely honest, John relished the thought of working with Tali; her boundless optimism and happy nature were in sharp contrast to most of the people John had served with.

'Go ahead, these programs aren't going anywhere.' John nodded before turning to walk to the elevator. _Only Kaiden and Liara left, then I'll see if Shepard wants to talk._ When the elevator arrived at the crew deck, John immediately set off to find Kaiden who was working near the sleeper pods.

'Hey Kaidan.' John said simply as he approached. Kaidan looked up from his work before returning the greeting.

'Thompson, is there something you need?'

'I just came to talk, get to know the crew I'm serving with a bit better.'

'Just like Shepard then, I see that the Alliance chooses its Commanders well.'

'Thank you Kaidan; is there anything you can tell me about BAaT? I've not heard that much about it.' Kaidan's eyes narrow with suspicion.

'How do you know I went to BAaT? I never mentioned it to you.'

'Well Kaiden you're a biotic, and the right age to have gone to BAaT before it was shut down. If I had to take a further guess, you're an L2 and one of the last people brought there.'

'Right on all accounts, I didn't realise you could figure all that out just from knowing my age.'

'You don't get to be in Project Vindicare without picking up a few reasoning skills.'

'Well regardless, it's impressive. If you have to know it was because of me that BAaT was shut down.' John was intrigued by this revelation and it must have shown on his face because Kaidan smiled slightly before continuing, 'The whole thing was run by a turian named Vyrnnus; he was a right sadistic bastard, his training methods were horrific but the Alliance were willing to overlook it because he got results. The guy hated me from day one and eventually I just snapped. There was this girl called Rahna, we were close and he knew that. She tried to reach for a glass of water rather than use biotics to get it and the bastard broke her arm.' Kaidan was doing well to hide his emotions but there was a slight hint of bitterness in his voice, 'I stood up for her and my reward was a heavy beating, he let all of his racism come out that day. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and delivered a biotic kick to his jaw, almost as powerful as I can manage now. Anyway, long story short is that BAaT ended and I never heard from Rahna again.'

'Wow, that sounds like one hell of a childhood. I'm surprised you don't hate turians after all you've been through.'

'What would be the point in that? Vyrnnus was an ass but he was just one turian; every race has their saints and their devils, you can't judge an entire race because of one individual.'

'That's very open minded of you Kaidan.' John liked Kaidan, he was an honest man and it was refreshing to meet someone who wasn't xenophobic.

'What about you? You don't seem too racist yourself.'

'I've seen the worst the galaxy has to offer during my time with Project Vindicare, I've come across the lowest forms of scum every race has to offer and I can honestly say that the more different a species appears to be, the more similar they actually are,'

'You have a point there, just don't go telling Ash that.' they both shared a laugh at that; Ash had made her views regarding aliens very clear indeed, 'Anyway, I've got work to do, speak to you later okay?'

'See you later Kaidan.' with that, John left to go find Liara, who had taken up residence behind the med-bay. As John walked through the med-bay Doctor Chakwas stepped in his way.

'Thompson, we need to talk in the briefing room.' John raised his eyebrow at this, curious at what could prompt the doctor to act in this manner.

'Could it wait for a minute? I was going to talk to Liara.'

'I suppose it can, I need to find Shepard anyway, just don't take too long.' Shepard as well? Now John was intrigued, but he wouldn't put off talking to Liara. He walked past Chakwas and opened the door to Liara's private room. She was sitting at her desk, reading an extranet article on her terminal. When Liara heard the door open she turned her chair to face him.

'Thompson! I was not expecting a visit.'

'I just came to see how you were acclimatising; it can't be easy going from total isolation to this in such a short period of time.'

'I must admit, it is daunting; I was never comfortable around others, but I am grateful for Shepard giving me the chance to work with you all against Saren and Benezia.'

'How do you feel about opposing your own mother?' John could see Liara's face drop as he said that.

'I don't know why Benezia would ally herself with Saren, but I am going to find out!'

'You don't need to prove yourself here Liara; I trust you, and I know Shepard does as well.' John was telling the truth, he was a good judge of character and he could see Liara was a good person.

'Thank you, that is very kind, Shepard told me the same thing.'

'I'm here if you ever want to talk about anything Liara, for now though I believe Doctor Chakwas wants to speak with me so I'll see you later.'

'Oh, okay then. Goodbye Thompson.'

* * *

><p>'So, what did you need me for?' John asked. He was in the briefing room with Shepard and Chakwas.<p>

'We ran some tests on you while you were unconscious after Rayingri and the results just came through.' John gave Chakwas a questioning look but didn't say anything, choosing instead to let her continue, 'Your element zero modules don't respond in the normal way, nor to the normal stimuli. So your biotic abilities are unknown; it is unlikely that you will be able to consciously manipulate mass effect fields in the same manner as other biotics.'

'So what can I do?' John said with a frown, this was not what he had expected.

'From what I can tell, your abilities focus on affecting yourself, rather than your environment. The mass effect fields your modules generate have a variety of functions; for one they can affect your reaction times to the extent of creating a time dilation effect, similar to that of a soldier's induced adrenaline rush. It can also toughen the fibres of your skin and bone tissues to increase resistance to damage. Finally, you are able to strengthen muscle tissue to improve movement speed and strength.'

'So, when I survived being shot by the geth armature, and on Rayingri, it was because I was subconsciously using biotics?'

'Indeed, though without implants you cannot maintain these effects for long without experiencing extreme exhaustion.' John took a moment to think before responding.

'Something happened on Rayingri, I've never felt anything like that before. What made that so different?'

'An emotional trigger, and that sword of yours seems to help things along.' This time it was Shepard who answered his question.

'My sword?' John was only moderately surprised at this, he had reasoned it through and arrived at the same conclusion.

'It showed signs of being receptive to biotic ability, but when Kaidan retrieved your sword it remained dormant.'

'That reminds me, from what you said it was a fairly dramatic display, but nobody on the crew has asked me about it, why is that?'

'I was the only one that saw it and I decided not to tell them; the rest of the squad was kind of preoccupied with fighting the platoon of geth that had appeared all around us.' John just nodded to her as he was deep in thought.

'That's all we wanted to discuss, if you have any more questions I will be in the med-bay.' Chakwas promptly exited the briefing room, leaving John alone with Shepard.

'Do you want to talk John?' she said in her most sympathetic voice.

'Maybe later, this is a lot to take in.' Shepard flashed him a look full of emotion before following Chakwas out of the room. John looked down at his hands, emotions flooding through his mind as he tried to deal with the news he was just given. Even though it was a new revelation, it made sense: the reason why he was always good at fighting, why Master Hiroshi had chosen him. _Saren won't know what hit him._


	7. Chapter 7: Bring Down The Sky

**Author's Note: **Just to let you all know, my beta-reader is going to Ireland for two weeks so I shan't be doing any updating for a while.

* * *

><p>Garrus heard the elevator arrive behind him and a very familiar scent wafted across the cargo bay. He recognised it as Shepard, probably wanting to check up on the crew. Garrus had to consciously resist the urge to turn around and catch her attention; he knew he would have to wait his turn. Garrus began furiously tapping away at his omni-tool, trying to occupy his mind with calibrations, but finding that his thoughts wouldn't stop returning to Shepard; he just couldn't figure her out. She was given free reign, no red tape, no regulations. She could do whatever she wanted without fear of reprieve and yet when faced with a choice between killing a criminal and letting him go she chose the latter option in order to save a few innocent miners. Garrus simply couldn't fathom her reasoning; surely bringing a criminal to justice would be worth the sacrifice? Garrus was jolted out of his thoughts when he realised that Shepard was approaching. He waited for her to get close enough before turning to greet her.<p>

'Shepard, was there something you wanted?' Garrus was very perceptive and human emotions were easy to read, and what he saw in Shepard's eyes was confusing indeed. He saw sadness, 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, it's just that I don't like letting terrorists go.' he was surprised to hear her say that, Garrus had thought she was fine with her decision.

'What's with the sudden change of heart? Having regrets about saving the miners?'

'None whatsoever. Saving them was the right thing to do; I just wish that I could have done something to prevent him from leaving.'

'Then why did you let him go?'

'I have no doubt that had he been in my place, all those miners would be dead. He is a callous man, total disregard for life of any sort. But I'm not him, and I won't stoop to his level. If I start to give in, act like the criminals then I'm no better than they are. Surely your work in C-Sec would have taught you that?'

'I've often found that the only way to catch a criminal is to copy their method. But I guess I can see your point.'

'I hope so, you're a good person Garrus and your heart is in the right place, but you need to realise that the ends don't justify the means.' Garrus just nodded and turned back to the Mako, his thoughts once again wandering, this time back to asteroid X57. _That was certainly an interesting mission._

* * *

><p><strong>Four Hours Earlier.<strong>

Shepard stood on the CIC, staring at the galaxy map. She was bored out of her mind waiting for something, _anything_ to happen. They had spent the last twenty four hours just wandering aimlessly through space, trying to find a lead on Saren, but it was hopeless. She couldn't wait for the next mission to roll around; she wasn't trained to deal with monotony. Shepard's mind continued to wander for some time before Joker's voice chimed over the ship's intercom.

'We're receiving a message from Terra Nova Commander; apparently they've lost contact with the workers on a mining asteroid, which has begun accelerating towards the planet.'

'Tell them we're on our way.' Shepard was ecstatic at hearing this; _Finally, some action._ According to the galaxy map, they were close, so she wouldn't have long to wait.

'Roger that Commander, ETA two hours.' Shepard stepped down from the galaxy map and walked down the stairs to the crew deck; she would need to talk with Thompson to form a strategy for their upcoming mission. When she arrived at the engineering deck Thompson was standing next to Tali rather than at his terminal.

'I need to talk with you Thompson.' He turned to face her before answering.

'Okay then. Tali, do you think you can take it from here?'

'I'll be fine, go ahead.' Thompson gave her a nod before following Shepard out of the door and into the elevator.

'So, what's this about?'

'We've received a distress call from a colony called Terra Nova and we need to form a plan.'

'What do we know?'

'I don't know anything yet, I came to find you as soon as we picked up the signal.' the elevator arrived and the two commanders made their way to the briefing room. When they arrived the holographic map was already being displayed. Shepard opened her omni-tool to access the relevant information, 'It looks like there are three fusion torches that control the acceleration of the asteroid, we'll need to shut them all down to stop the acceleration.'

'What about that structure in the northeast?'

'That's the main control station, whoever caused this is likely holed up in there.'

'And those small buildings dotted around?'

'There's no information on them but if I had to guess they'll be mining outposts.'

'I see. We should check them out; if there are any survivors they could have useful information about our enemy.'

'Agreed. Have you decided where to drop yet?'

'That depends on where you're dropping the Mako.'

'The safest place to land it is here.' Shepard said, pointing to a large, flat area in the southwest.

'That'll put you close to one of the mining stations, you could check that out before heading to the fusion torch.' Thompson began examining the area around the southernmost torch, 'There's another mining outpost nearby; I could drop near that, take a look, then set up a sniping position on the top of this mountain. When we're finished there I'll scout out the top of the plateau in the centre, see what that structure is while you go for the next torch. That will give me another ideal sniping position. Then we can converge on the final torch and mining outpost before taking out the main building.'

'Sounds good to me, go and get yourself ready, we'll be another two hours.' Thompson nodded before walking out of the briefing room. Shepard continued to stare at the hologram, wondering who would have the audacity to make such a bold attack on a human colony.

* * *

><p>Tali hated being dropped in the Mako. She hated the feeling of weightlessness, she hated the sight of the ground rushing towards them, and she hated the sudden jolt that accompanied the landing.<p>

'I'll never get used to that.' she mumbled under her breath as the Mako began making its way up to the first mining outpost. It didn't take long as they had landed nearby. As they exited the Mako, a grim scene awaited them; the outpost was completely still. A body was lying next to a transmission tower. Kaidan walked over to the corpse and fired up his omni-tool.

'G. Mendel, one of the survey staff. Body shows signs of severe trauma and a single bullet wound to the back of the head.' Tali couldn't stop staring at the man's body; she'd been in battle before and thought that she'd gotten over the sight of bodies, but this was wrong. This poor man had been beaten and executed by his sadistic captors. _Those bosh'tets are going to pay,_ she thought, anger flooding through her as Shepard entered the cabin. She returned a few moments later and entered the Mako without saying a word. Whatever she had found in there, it wasn't pleasant.

'Shepard to Thompson, we've just found the body of a member of the survey team at this outpost, what's happening on your end?' there was a moment of silence before his reply could be heard over the radio.

'It's the same here, looks like whoever did this was very thorough. I don't think we'll find any survivors. You might want to be careful when you approach the torch, I count six heavy turrets guarding the approach, and I doubt they'll be friendly.'

'Roger that, load your rifle with disruptor rounds and remove their shields; we'll handle the rest.'

'Good idea, see you on the other side.'

'Let's do that then, we'll meet up outside the entrance to the torch.' Shepard turned to face the team, 'Garrus, you're on gunning duty.' The turian nodded before stationing himself next to the Commander.

* * *

><p>The Mako rocked to the side as Garrus fired the cannon, destroying the final turret with a considerable explosion. Shepard pulled the Mako up to the structure's entrance before the team disembarked. As they gathered outside the door, Thompson materialised out of thin air. They all drew their weapons and walked into the building. The first room was a simple entrance, a few lockers were stationed along the wall to hold the miners' belongings. Thompson walked over to the next door and hit the green control button. The sight that greeted him made him turn pale. His eyes narrowed before he spoke in a voice full of hate.<p>

'Batarians.'

Tali looked inside to find a number of four-eyed aliens looking at them in shock. Suddenly they sprang into action, one of the batarians saying something that didn't come through her translator before diving behind cover. Within seconds the entire room was filled with gunfire as everyone scrambled for cover. Tali could hear bestial growls coming from inside the room as a pack of varren leapt out from behind some boxes. She readied her shotgun and waited for the beasts to get close enough. Once they were within range she opened fire, causing gore to fly everywhere as the head of the lead varren exploded outwards. She pulled back the loading pin and aimed at a second varren. Another pull of the trigger resulted in another gory death. The third varren fell just as easily but when it came to the fourth, Tali pulled the trigger and…nothing. Her weapon had overheated and the varren was too close for her to draw a pistol. Before she could react the creature was on top of her, biting and clawing at her suit. It took all of Tali's strength just to keep the beast from hurting her. _One wrong move and I'm dead. Keelah, why do I always get myself into these situations?_ Suddenly her helmet was covered in blood and the varren began screaming. There was a sickening thud and the screaming stopped. Tali wiped the blood off her helmet to see Thompson standing above her, sword in hand. _Oh Keelah, I can't think of a single mission we've been on where he hasn't had to save my life. I need to be more careful._

'Thanks.' she said, feeling decidedly embarrassed. Thompson held his arm out and pulled her upright.

'Don't mention it.' Thompson disappeared as his stealth system kicked in and Tali took cover behind the door once again, feeling ashamed of her weakness in battle. She glanced around the corner, expecting to be swathed in bullets but instead she saw Thompson taking on three batarians with his sword. Tali looked over to his right and noticed a rocket-wielding batarian about to fire at him. _Not on my watch. _Tali thought, seeing the fuel canister directly behind him. She quickly readied an overload program before sending it at the canister's sensitive electronics. Sure enough, the fuel ignited and the resulting explosion threw the batarian clear across the room. By this time Thompson had finished with his batarians and noticed the rocket launcher the enemy clutched to his chest. He looked over to Tali and gave her a nod of thanks, causing her to almost swell with pride. _At least I have repaid him for one of the many times he has saved my life._

They walked into the room on the upper floor of the building and saw a large control panel. Shepard walked over and started tapping buttons, and after a few seconds the panel beeped to inform them of the torch shutting down. Shepard turned to the rest of the team.

'Alright, that's the first one, let's go get-' she was interrupted by the sound of a woman's voice coming over the radio.

'I'm reading that the torch is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?' Shepard walked back to the terminal.

'I hear you, what's going on?'

'I'm Kate Bowman, one of the engineers assigned to this station. Look, I can't talk much because they might find me but you need to keep doing what you just did. Those torches need to go out but I think they know you turned one off, they'll be ready for you.'

'Stay put, I'll get those other torches offline.'

'Thanks, I'll contact you when I can.' the team turned to leave. When they reached the entrance to the building there was a man waiting for them. He was looking in the other direction as they walked in.

'Hey.' Shepard said. The man jumped from surprise, firing a single round at her chest. The shot bounced harmlessly off her shields.

'Oh my, I'm so sorry, I didn't even realise you were human until… well. I guess I'm not much of a soldier.'

'That's okay; I'm still in one piece. I'm Commander Shepard and I'm here to help.'

'I'm Simon Atwell, Chief Engineer. You've got to shut down the other torches Shepard, there are four million people down there, I—my family. They live in Aronas.'

'Batarians everywhere and three torches that need shutting down, anything else I should know?'

'The next torch is surrounded by live blasting caps, that tank of yours will set them off so you'll need to go in on foot.'

'I can handle that.' said Thompson, 'You can take the Mako up to the plateau to find out what's up there.'

'It's just the radio tower, it should give you the locations of all the survey stations. Which reminds me, I have a team working out at the stations, if you can find out what happened to them, I'd be grateful.'

'Two of them are dead, I'm sorry.' Simon was quiet for a moment.

'Well, maybe the other one's alive. There were a bunch of engineers over at the main facility, but they're probably all dead. Or worse.'

'We talked to a woman called Kate Bowman, she hasn't been found yet.'

'Katie's alive? Well that's something at least. She signed on with her brother; he was a member of the security detail. I hope they're okay.'

'You'd better find a good place to hide, don't want the batarians to find you.'

'Yeah, I will. Good luck Shepard.' with that, the engineer headed deeper into the facility. As soon as the door opened Thompson began jogging towards the next torch. Well, it looked like he was jogging, but he was moving as fast as most people could sprint. _I'll have to ask how he manages that sometime,_ she thought as he disappeared. The rest of the squad piled into the Mako and set off after him. Before long the fusion torch came into sight and surrounding the entrance to the control centre was a large circle of beacons; presumably the danger-zone for the blasting caps. Shepard stopped the Mako to await the all-clear, well out of range of the turrets guarding the exterior of the building. They only had to wait for a minute or so before Thompson's voice sounded over the radio.

'Alright, I've disabled the mines. It's all up to you now Shepard.'

'Roger that, this shouldn't take us long.' Shepard accelerated the Mako to full speed while Garrus spun the cannon around to face the nearest turret and opened fire. Shepard wasn't lying and soon all of the turrets had been dealt with. When Tali disembarked she noticed several corpses. She decided to go over and investigate, immediately regretting her decision. The corpses were batarian, and the slash marks showed that Thompson had killed them. Whenever Thompson had killed before he would always grant a quick death; striking at vital points to minimise pain. But this time, he had cut into the suits without wounding the batarians within; causing their skin to be exposed to the vacuum. Tali was shocked and revolted by how they had been killed; she would have expected this kind of thing from Wrex but not from Thompson. She looked over at him; he was standing near the door, his stance showing agitation. Tali had no idea what was wrong, but she fully intended to find out—after the mission; she could tell that asking him now wasn't the best idea.

'Let's do this.' Shepard said, walking through the door. The layout of this building was identical to the previous one, so they moved through the first room quickly before entering combat in the second. There were considerably more batarians in this base but there was more cover for the team to hide behind. Tali threw herself behind a chest-high crate and readied her shotgun. When she stood up though, she was confronted by the sight of Thompson smashing a batarian's face in with the pommel of his sword before whirling around and cutting another nearly in half at the waist. Tali tried as best she could to ignore the gruesome scene and get on with the combat. There was a batarian shock trooper closing in on their position and Tali ducked back down behind her cover before opening her omni-tool. She commenced the overload and sabotage runtimes and readied herself for combat. As soon as the programmes were ready she jumped up and released them on the advancing enemy. The force of her overload staggered him backwards while she fired upon him. She hit him directly in the head, causing brain material to splatter against the wall.

Tali saw four more targets on her radar; Thompson was dealing with one and the other three were being pinned down by the rest of the team. Wrex was rapidly advancing towards the cover concealing the three batarians, so Tali decided to flank them while they were distracted. Keeping low behind the various crates and pillars scattered about, Tali managed to manoeuvre around them until she had a clear shot; unfortunately she was still too far away to hit them with her shotgun and a pistol would be useless against three enemies, so she readied a grenade. Tali hurled the grenade towards them and it landed right in their midst. The ensuing explosion threw the batarians out of their cover, one of them landing near her position, the other two landing near Wrex. Tali executed her batarian with a pistol headshot and looked up just in time to see Wrex smash the last batarians into a wall with biotics.

'Are you there? You have to hurry—they're rigging this place to blow.' Kate's voice sounded over the radio. Before Shepard could respond, another voice was heard.

'You! Get away from there!' there were a few seconds of silence before the voice resumed talking, 'Who's shutting down the torches?' the question was met with more silence, 'I won't ask you again.' No response. Suddenly, there was a gunshot, and the sound of something hitting the floor, 'Find the problem and deal with it. Get her out of here!' After that the radio went dead.

'They will pay for what they have done here.' Tali heard Thompson from behind her. The voice was devoid of emotion, but as she turned around she could see the anger and hatred in his eyes. It scared her.

'Come on, let's get moving.' Shepard said, walking out of the door. The trip back to the Mako was uneventful and the squad began to pile in. As Thompson began to move towards the next fusion torch, Shepard stopped and activated her radio, 'Thompson, go straight to the next outpost then meet us at the fusion torch, whatever is waiting for us I'm sure we can handle it.' there was a long pause before he replied.

'Roger.' was all he said as he once again disappeared from view. Silence descended as Shepard took the Mako to their next objective and nobody said a word while she and Garrus dealt with the defences. Once the turrets had been destroyed they lined up in front of the entrance and waited for Thompson. A few seconds later he materialised right next to them and walked straight over to Shepard. He answered the quizzical look she gave him by simply shaking his head. She sighed before hitting the green panel next to the door and entering the final torch. There were more batarians in this building but they proved no trouble as the team batted them aside. Once the torch had been disabled they walked back down the stairs to the central room, but when they reached it they were confronted by a squad of batarians, just standing there. Everybody reached for their weapons, but when Shepard realised that the batarians were not attacking them she held up her arms, telling her squad to stand down. Reluctantly, Tali holstered her weapon, as did everybody else. Except Thompson, who kept his pistol to hand.

'We can do this the hard way, or we can end this peacefully.' the lead batarian said.

'Didn't think you batarians knew how to do that.' Thompson replied, his voice seething with hatred, the force of which caused the batarians to take a step back.

'Look, I'm just doing my job here, hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. I signed on to make a little profit. A quick slave grab, nothing more.' Thompson looked like he was ready to shoot the man but he held back, leaving Shepard to answer.

'This isn't just a slave grab anymore. Millions of people are going to die.'

'Don't you think I know that? I'm not in charge here, if it were up to me we would already have left.'

'Then leave.'

'It's not that simple, Balak would skin me alive if I deserted.'

'Don't you worry about him; when this is all over, he won't be a problem.' the batarian considered this for a second before ordering his squad to leave. As they exited the building, Thompson turned to face Shepard.

'Shepard-' she interrupted him before he could go any further.

'Leave it.' Thompson gave her a look that could melt steel before gathering himself and walking to the exit. Shepard sighed before following him out. Tali was beginning to worry about Thompson; he was acting very out of character. When she emerged onto the asteroid he was already gone, so she entered the Mako and waited for Shepard to take them to the main facility. Before long they arrived, only to see several turrets shooting at each other; evidently Thompson had hacked them. Shepard waited for the turrets to destroy each other before bringing them to the entrance of the structure.

There were batarians everywhere. Tali's omni-tool showed dozens of enemy signatures all around them and the entire area was being flooded with bullets. She noticed Thompson's icon moving towards a large cluster of enemies and immediately formed an idea. As quickly as she could safely manage, Tali began loading a sabotage programme. The moment it was finished she unleashed it in the centre of the group, causing a noticeable drop in the volume of gunfire. Almost immediately Thompson sprang into action, yells of pain accompanying every kill and before long they had been dealt with. Tali decided to watch his progress and help wherever possible as her suit wasn't built for extended firefights. Thompson's next target was a group of shock troopers; so Tali unleashed a dampening programme, knowing that their immunity protocols could prove troublesome. Tali looked over her cover to see blood splattering everywhere from Thompson's location as the hostiles began disappearing from her radar. She ducked back down moments before bullets started flying past her head; a large team of batarians were closing in on their position. She silently cursed herself for not paying more attention before hacking into one of their combat drones. The batarians scrambled for cover at the unexpected stream of bullets unleashed upon them and Tali took the opportunity to overload their shields. Suddenly, the batarians were vulnerable and the squad cut them down mercilessly. With that, the battle was over. A silence descended upon the facility as Thompson made his way back over to them. Just as he arrived Tali heard the door open behind them and the squad turned around to face another squad of batarians; but these had their weapons by their sides.

'I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try and stop me I'll detonate the charges and your helper and her friends are all going to die.' Thompson took a step forward.

'You really think you're getting away with this you batarian son of a bitch?' he said, raising his pistol. Immediately Shepard lunged at him and grabbed his arm.

'Stand down Thompson!' she yelled at him. The look he gave her sent a shiver down Tali's spine. His eyes were full of emotion; hate, anger and something she had never seen there before: madness.

'What are you doing Shepard? This man has killed dozens of innocent people! If we hadn't intervened millions would be dead! He must die!'

'I said _stand down_ Thompson, that's an order!' he stared at her for a long time before answering in a terribly quiet voice.

'Aye _Commander_.' Shepard's back straightened upon hearing this, and the significance of it wasn't lost on Tali; it was the first time he had referred to her by rank.

'You think this is bad? This is nothing! What the humans did to us was far worse! We have been forced into exile, forced to live off the scraps of the galaxy. It has been like this for decades.'

'You are the scum of the galaxy; pirates, slavers and terrorists all! You cower in fear of the slightest retribution, threatening war whenever we respond to your actions and you have the audacity to blame us for your situation?' Thompson was visibly shaking with pent up rage now and Tali was terrified of what would happen if he lost control.

'It was you. You have put us in this position!'

'How does killing innocent people make up for that?' this time it was Shepard who spoke up.

'Sometimes you have to get someone's attention before they'll listen.' Thompson almost exploded upon hearing this.

'Is that all this is? A bid to get attention? What about Mindoir? Or Elysium? Whenever you strike out at the galaxy out of bitter resentment you retreat back to the terminus systems with your tail between your legs before we have a chance to retaliate!'

'Enough! You don't understand. Actually you don't want to understand. I'm leaving this rock and if you want your people to live you'll let me go.'

'This isn't over, I will find you, and I _will_ kill you.'

'Perhaps, but not today. You'll have to work fast: those charges are still on a timer.' as he spoke Tali's omni-tool beeped to inform her of three explosives that had just been activated, along with a patrol of combat drones. She immediately dived into cover and began firing at the rapidly approaching drones. She managed to drain their shields to half before being forced to let her own shields regenerate. She heard a small explosion and a number of the drones fell to the ground. Suddenly, her omni-tool beeped again, telling her that the explosives had been taken care of. She frowned at this; she did not realise that anyone was disarming them. The remainder of the combat drones fell in quick succession, no match for such a highly trained team. When the fight was over there was no sign of Balak or his batarians, but Simon Atwell was standing in their place.

'He got away…is that alright? Will you get in trouble for it?'

'He may have gotten away, but we will find him. Besides, I won't sacrifice innocent lives.' Simon nodded at this.

'Well, I'm glad you saved them anyway. I'm not going to stay here; too many memories.' He turned to leave but before the door opened he looked back at Shepard, 'Thank you.' he said before entering the airlock.

'Let's release the hostages then return to the Normandy, and Thompson, I'll be wanting a word with you when this is over.' Tali knew that Shepard wasn't the only one who would be talking to him about what happened here.


	8. Chapter 8: Noveria

**Author's Note:** Well here we are again, it's always such a pleasure. I am really, _really _sorry about the long wait; I got complacent while my proof reader was away and 'may' have forgotten to write anything before she came back. Hopefully the length of this chapter will make up for the delay and I should be back to my normal schedule from now on. Anyway, I'll let you get on with it now, and as always, please R&R. It's greatly appreciated.

* * *

><p>'What the hell was that about John?' Shepard asked. They were alone in the briefing room, the rest of the ground team had already returned to their posts.<p>

'You know perfectly well Jane.' John replied.

'That's what I'm afraid of.' Shepard sighed, 'I thought you had put all that behind you.'

'I thought so too. But seeing those batarians trying to kill millions of people… I guess some things never change.' John walked over to the door, 'Don't worry about it Jane, it won't happen again.'

* * *

><p>As soon as the elevator arrived at the cargo bay he walked over to the engineering deck and assumed his station. John began cycling through the various programmes Tali had asked him to fix, trying his best to take his mind off the day's events. Before long he became acutely aware of a presence behind him. He turned around to see Tali standing there wringing her hands.<p>

'Can I help you?' he asks.

'Are you okay? We were all worried about you; I've never seen anyone so angry before and…'

'I'll be fine in a few days; you don't need to concern yourself about me.' Tali just stood there, still wringing her hands, 'Is there something else?'

'Well, dinner is being served now and, well…' John's eyes lit up as he thought of a method of forgetting about the batarians. He gave Tali a smile before answering.

'You want to hear more of my story don't you?' she nodded, 'Then let's go.' he said before walking back to the elevator, Tali following close behind. Garrus and Wrex were already standing there, waiting for the doors to close. As John entered the elevator Wrex turned to him.

'You okay human? That blood rage you were in down there would have put most krogan to shame.'

'I'm fine Wrex, it won't happen again.'

'Damn, I was hoping you'd be like that all the time, it would make you a worthy enemy.'

'We're all on the same side here Wrex.'

'So? Doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun on the side. Besides, I hear you're getting in a fight with the other human.'

'You mean Williams?' Garrus asks, 'You wouldn't believe the amount of money people are betting on that match.' Tali turned to John.

'I hadn't heard of this, why are you fighting Ash?'

'It's just a friendly sparring match; she seems to think she can beat me in close combat.' Wrex let out a laugh.

'Not a chance,' he says, 'I've seen you fight and I know where my money's going.' before anyone got a chance to respond the elevator doors opened onto the crew deck. John collected his meal before sitting down at the table. The rest of the ground team were already there so as soon as the four of them sat down he began talking.

'Where did I leave off last time?'

'You had just killed a pack of varren led by an alpha.' says Garrus.

'Ah yes, now I remember. I hope you all have some free time because this one is interesting.'

* * *

><p>The headquarters of Clan Garstet was a mess, even by krogan standards. There was rubble everywhere and it was hard to move around without giving away their location. Still, they managed to get close to Warlord Koth's 'throne'. Jason and John both had their stealth systems active and were listening carefully to find out any information they could. Most of what the Warlord said had nothing whatsoever to do with their objective and before long they grew restless.<p>

'I'm going to look at the chief's personal terminal, see what I can find.' John heard his partner say over the radio. He nodded his approval before watching Jason's indicator disappear through the rubble. Turning back to the krogan he noticed something strange about their weapons; though he couldn't quite think of what it was. It took him several minutes to realise that they looked like his own weapons. Weapons that were still in the field testing phase. _That must be how Koth is gaining so much power, _he thought, wondering who could be supplying the krogan with such high-tech weaponry. Before long he heard Jason's voice.

'It looks like the meeting was delayed because a number of the Warlord's bodyguards were injured in a raid just after we left.'

'I see, does it say when the next meeting is?' There was a short pause before he answered.

'Noon, three days from now.'

'Roger that, can you meet me in the armoury? There's something I need to check out.' After hearing Jason's confirmation, John set off across the uneven ground, travelling slowly to avoid disturbing the rubble. When he arrived at the armoury Jason was already standing there, cloak still engaged, waiting for him. Without a word they checked the area for krogan before entering the armoury and locking the door behind them. John disengaged his cloak and walked over to the nearest stack of weapons. He picked up an assault rifle and laid it down on a nearby workbench. Turning it over he was surprised to note that these weapons used thermal clips; technology that hadn't even passed prototyping yet. His partner, however, was more interested in the logo emblazoned on the side.

'Shit.' he said, letting out a low whistle.

'Cerberus.' John said as he noticed it too.

'Command's just going to love this.' Jason mumbled, motioning John to return the weapon before heading back to the door. They engaged their cloaks and headed outside. John didn't have to ask where his partner was going: he knew that information this important would have to be relayed to their superiors immediately and the only way to do so would be to use Clan Garstet's communication array. Before long they had arrived at the terminal, only to find it unmanned; the krogan rarely felt the need to use long-range communications when there wasn't a raid going on. It took Jason only a few seconds to create a message and send it. Before they could even turn to leave their HUD indicated a new message. The two infiltrators looked at each other as they opened the file; it was hard to believe command could respond so quickly.

_To Vindicare team Beta._

_In light of this new development, changes have been made to the mission parameters. You must observe this meeting and ascertain Cerberus' goals. You must then plant a tracking device on their ship before intercepting and destroying the Clan leader's envoy. Finally, the weapons must be disposed of. Once these objectives are complete, you are to return to the S.S.V. Agincourt._

_Vindicare Command._

* * *

><p><strong>Three Days later<strong>

The Cerberus dropship silently descended upon the clearing. As soon as it landed, a dozen military personnel disembarked and spread throughout open area, leaving two men in scientist uniforms to drag numerous crates out of the cargo hold. Unbeknownst to them, however, two invisible men were observing their every move. One man turned to the other.

'Do you want to do this, or should I?' he asked. There was a pause as this question was considered.

'I'll do it, I want to scan the crates while I'm there.' he said before making his way over to the ship. Once his path was clear he sprinted to the side of the craft before planting the homing device upon its fuselage. After doing so he crept towards the crates and scanned them with his omni-tool before returning to his waiting partner.

'Just as I thought; enough weapons and ammo to start a small war.'

'What could Cerberus be getting out of this?'

'We'll just have to wait and see. The krogan will be here in an hour.'

* * *

><p>John shifted his weight. He had been standing for hours; there wasn't a decent place to sit down nearby and his legs were still aching from all of the traveling they had done over the past few days. The tomkah bearing the krogan envoy had arrived moments before and negotiations had begun. It was impossible to ascertain the nature of the haggling as the two parties were exchanging numbers alone. This continued for a few minutes before the lead krogan begrudgingly agreed to Cerberus' price. John watched in confusion as ten krogan stepped forwards and began boarding the ship in exchange for the crates. As soon as the krogan were onboard the Cerberus team followed and without a sound the dropship ascended into the sky. Shaking off his confusion, John set about executing their plan; while the krogan weren't looking, they would plant a large number of charges in and around the crates, detonating them while the krogan were mid-transit. The Warlord would believe that Cerberus had booby-trapped the crates and pin the blame on them. The two infiltrators managed to plant the charges without being detected and quickly began making their way towards the clan's headquarters. Several hours passed before Jason spoke.<p>

'Should I detonate the explosives now?' he asked, turning to his partner.

'I don't see why not, they should be halfway there by now.' Jason nodded before pressing a button on his omni-tool. A few minutes later the sound of the blast reached them, causing dust to fly everywhere.

'I do love a good explosion.' Jason said, a grin on his face.

'Shame we weren't there to see it, must have been big.' John replied before continuing on their journey; it was now time to execute their last order before getting off planet.

Clan Garstet was in a total panic. Word of the bombing had spread quickly and Warlord Koth was in a blind rage; which was fortunate, because he had ordered all of the Cerberus weapons to be stored in the armoury so they could be checked for explosives. Oddly enough, nobody had volunteered for the job so the weapons were just sitting there, making John's job a lot easier. They managed to deploy their last remaining explosives without trouble and made their way to the edge of the settlement. Without a sound they detonated the charges before walking over to a hidden clearing. With the push of a button, a two-man ship materialised out of the air and the pair of infiltrators boarded before ascending into the skies of Tuchanka, the still-rising cloud of smoke bearing evidence of a job well done.

* * *

><p>'Hah! That'll teach Koth to rely on aliens to get ahead!' Wrex laughed, pounding his fist on the table.<p>

'What would Cerberus want with krogan?' Tali asked.

'We found that out not long after, our tracker yielded results.' John replied, 'But that's a story for another time. Right now, I think I owe Ash a sparring match.'

'That's right, you do.' said the gunnery chief, 'Let's get to it, I think the crew have waited long enough.' Everybody on the crew deck immediately sprang into action, spreading the word and gathering as many people as possible while the ground team descended to the cargo bay. When they arrived John saw that a space had been cleared by moving the Mako to the side. The engineering crew had already assembled in the centre of the room, evidently having received word of the impending fight.

'I thought the Alliance didn't allow this sort of thing on their ships.' Garrus said to Shepard.

'They don't, but I'm a Spectre and what I say goes.' she responded.

Both Ashley and Thompson proceeded to remove their armour. When they were both wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt the present crew formed a ring around them as more people poured out of the elevator; it seemed the entire crew, including Joker, had turned up to see the fight. When everybody was in position John turned to his opponent.

'Ready?' he asked.

'Ready.' she said, assuming a fighting stance. John kept his arms by his sides, as though nothing were about to happen. Without warning Ash threw a punch straight for his head and the fight was on. Dodging to the side, John brought his leg around in a circle, trying to catch the back of Ashley's knees, but she sidestepped out of the way before she responded with a jab aimed at his chest. John grasped her clenched fist with his cybernetic hand and kicked at her shin in an attempt to throw her to the ground, she proved faster than he had anticipated though, and she easily managed to avoid his attack and spun in a circle to wrench her hand free before using the momentum to swing at his head. John ducked and threw himself into a tackle, knocking both of them to the ground.

Just before he hit the steel floor, John threw his hands out and rolled forwards, bringing himself to his feet. When he turned around he saw that Ash was already standing as well. He kicked at her torso with his left leg, causing her to grasp his foot with both hands. John span around, using his foot as a pivot, while swinging his right leg at her head. Ash barely managed to get out of the way of the blow as John smacked into the floor. With a grunt of effort he jumped up and punched Ash square in the shoulder. She let out a yelp of pain before grabbing his hands and kneeing him in the stomach. John recoiled slightly but continued to press the attack. He swung at her again, Ash barely managing to deflect the blow before counterattacking with a right hook. Just before her fist made contact John grabbed it and in one fluid movement brought his free hand to her shoulder, and using his right leg to destabilise her balance, he hurled her to the ground. He then proceeded to pin her down and wait for her to tap out. Sure enough, she couldn't remove him and so she conceded. John rose to his feet amidst a chorus of cheers and groans as money changed hands; Joker in particular had a considerable grin on his face.

'That was a good fight Thompson.' Wrex said, crossing his arms. John just nodded at him as the two combatants retrieved their armour. As the crowd began to disperse he turned to Ash.

'That was…interesting. You did well there Ash, not many people last that long.' she met his gaze, her eyes full of emotion. _Admiration perhaps? It was a good fight, but not _that_ good._

'Likewise Thompson, we'll have to do this again sometime.'

'I'd like that, but be sure to try harder next time okay?' this elicited a chuckle from Ashley. John headed back to the engineering deck while Ash returned to her station. Before he got there, though, Shepard pulled him over to the side.

'Just to let you know, we'll be heading to Noveria next.' John's eyes widened in surprise.

'No shit. I never thought I'd be going back there.'

'I just wanted your opinion on the place; you know it better than I do.'

'There's not much to know, it's a private planet, run by corporations. As such, everybody has dabbled in illegal activities at some point and they won't be too happy to know a Spectre is in their midst. They'll probably try and oppose everything you do, but we can use your Spectre status to our advantage: if we want to we can uncover damn near anything we want and blackmail them into submission.'

'I'd rather not do that.'

'We may not have any choice Shepard.' John turned to walk away but then became struck by an idea, 'Where will we be docking?'

'Port Hanshan.' upon hearing this John let out a groan, 'What's wrong with that?'

'If Anoleis is still in charge, we may have a very hard time down there. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it, though. If you need me, I'll be in engineering.'

* * *

><p>'Approach control, this is SSV Normandy. Requesting a vector and a berth.' Joker said. Commanders Shepard and Thompson were both present in the cockpit, the rest of the team spread out behind them.<p>

'Normandy, your arrival was not scheduled. Our defence grid is live and tracking you. State your business.' came the response over the radio. Garrus rolled his eyes; it didn't matter that this wasn't the Citadel, corporate bureaucracy was the same everywhere.

'Citadel business. We've got a Council Spectre on board.' that was what Garrus liked about working with a Spectre; no amount of red tape could slow them down now.

'Landing access granted, Normandy.' the voice said, sounding slightly sullen, 'Be advised you will be subject to an identity check on arrival. If your identity cannot be ascertained, your ship will be impounded.'

'What a fun bunch, I think I'll take my next leave here.' Joker said with his usual sarcasm.

'They haven't changed a bit since I was last here.' Thompson mumbled before turning to Shepard, 'You'll want to be careful, the presence of a Spectre will be unwelcome here.' she just nodded in response. Once again Garrus felt his thoughts turn towards Shepard: she was an…unusual woman. He just couldn't forget how she had reacted back on Asteroid X57; it wasn't the choice he would make, but he could see her reasoning. _I wonder what she would have made of the Saleon case…_ Garrus thought as the ship came in to dock. Almost immediately the two Commanders walked into the airlock, the rest of the ground team following behind. After they exited the Normandy, they were greeted by a security team.

'That's far enough.' the lead female said.

'We're not here to cause problems.' Shepard replied.

'This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials.'

'I'm a Spectre, my name is Shepard.'

'Load of horsecrap, ma'am.' the other female said. Garrus already didn't like her; she was being far too hostile for his liking.

'We will need to check your identity. In the meantime I must inform you that weapons are not allowed on Noveria. Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons.' Before the woman could take a single step forwards, the entire team raised their weapons.

'Why don't you come over here and try it, see where that gets you.' Wrex said from behind him. The security team took a few steps back, clearly intimidated by the sheer number of weapons pointed at them.

'Stand down. Their house, their rules.' Shepard lowered her gun.

'If you say so, I hope your shields are working.' Garrus mumbled, following suit. It was then that a voice came over the intercom.

'Captain Matsuo stand down! We have confirmed their identity, Spectres are allowed to carry weapons here.' Garrus began smirking; being with a Spectre certainly had its perks.

'Very well, I hope the rest of your visit here will be less confrontational. Parasini-san will meet you up those stairs.' the security team stepped aside, allowing them access. When they crossed an unseen threshold, alarms started sounding from every direction. Almost immediately a dark-skinned woman in a long dress appeared waving her arms.

'It's alright, they're just weapon detectors, you're clear to come through.' Shepard walked up to her, 'I am Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. We apologise for the incident in the docked bay.'

'I appreciate your help.' Shepard said.

'You understand our security chief was only doing her job. One of my duties is seeing to the orientation of new arrivals. Do you have any questions?'

'Has anyone unusual passed through here recently?'

'Unusual? An asari Matriarch passed through a few days ago. Lady Benezia.' upon hearing this Liara gasped.

'Benezia-? She is here?' this would complicate things, Garrus had no idea what could be going through her head at that moment.

'Can I speak with her?' Shepard asked.

'Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex days ago. To the best of my knowledge, she's still there.'

'Could you tell me how to get there?'

'You will need to ask Administrator Anoleis for clearance to leave this port.' Thompson became slightly agitated by this.

'Wonderful, just wonderful.' He mumbled.

'Understood, can we go in now?' Shepard continued on, disregarding Thompson's comment.

'Yes you can, the administrators office is just round the corner.' Parasini said before leaving the way she came. Shepard turned to Liara.

'I imagine you want to talk to me, Shepard. About my mother.' said Liara.

'No, I don't. I trust you Liara, you're part of my crew after all.' Shepard responded.

'Thank you Shepard, that means a lot to me.' everybody starting walking towards the elevator, except Thompson, who walked over to Liara.

'Hey, are you okay?' he said.

'I will be fine, thank you. It was just a shock to find out that Benezia is here.' Liara replied.

'Well, if you need to talk, I'm here for you.' Thompson was being very gentle here, a far cry from his behaviour on the previous mission.

'Thank you Thompson, I'll keep that in mind.' she said as they arrived at the elevator. A few moments later they were in a large plaza. A large plaza with almost nobody in sight. The place was pretty much deserted. They walked over to the Administrator's office, the guards waving them through. When Parasini saw Shepard, she told her that Anoleis was waiting for them in the room behind her.

'Here we go.' Thompson mumbled under his breath. Garrus was curious to see why he was acting like this about the Administrator, after all, how bad could he be? Garrus soon found out when the fast-talking salarian stonewalled them throughout the entire meeting. Everybody was getting more and more agitated while the irritating bureaucrat denied them the right to leave the port. Thompson breathed a heavy sigh after they left his office, 'He was exactly as I remember him. I'm surprised he didn't recognise me though.'

'Looks like we're on our own, I wonder if that Parasini woman could help us.'

'Worth a shot.' Garrus said as Shepard led them back to the reception area.

'You've never worked in the corporate world, have you Shepard? You can't bludgeon through bureaucracy.' Parasini said upon greeting the Commander.

'So it would seem. I need an alternative.'

'Talk to Lorik Qui'in. He should be at the hotel bar. Can't say more, not within earshot of Mr Anoleis.' she whispered.

'I'll do that, talk to you later.' Shepard left the office and began walking toward the bar, 'What do you make of this Thompson?'

'The only two ways to cut through corporations are bribery and blackmail. Seeing how our dear friend Anoleis behaved back there, I'm more in favour of the latter. The way Parasini talked about this Qui'in fellow, I'd guess that he has the information we need to do just that.' Shepard nodded before they entered the elevator. Upon arrival at the bar they saw a well-dressed turian watching them closely. Garrus knew that the other members of his team were unfamiliar with turian behaviour, but he was somewhat disturbed by how intently this man was watching them; it wasn't normal. Commander Shepard approached him.

'Afternoon. Sit down, have a drink. What can I do for you.' he said in a jovial tone. Garrus was definitely concerned now: this man was far too friendly.

'Are you Lorik Qui'in? I was told you could help me.'

'You are the Spectre that just arrived, are you not? What could an old turian like me possibly help you with?'

'I'm trying to find a way into the garage. I need your help.'

'How fortuitous. I have a problem I need dealt with; the Administrator closed down my office recently. He has become quite wealthy after taking direct control of rents.' Garrus could see a smirk appear on Thompson's face: this is just what they needed.

'I'm sensing a connection there.' Shepard said.

'Indeed. I acquired evidence of the Administrator's actions. His goons are ransacking the place as we speak. I sense you wish to leave this port, Anoleis would be disinclined to let you wander. If you recover the evidence from my office, I will give you my garage pass, as well as a sum of credits.'

'You have a plan?'

'I do. However there is one more 'fly in the lotion' as you humans put it.' Garrus couldn't help but roll his eyes at this; even he knew that was wrong, 'Anoleis has members of the Hanshan security force searching my office. Ms Matsuo is unaware of their outside employment.'

'I'll focus on getting the data. I won't fire unless I have to, but I shan't hesitate; they are corrupt after all.'

'Quite, here's a keycard and an OSD; the keycard will grant you access to my office and the OSD has an auto-execute decryption protocol.' Shepard turned to leave, 'Oh and do try to keep the bloodstains off the carpets would you?' Garrus was thoroughly unsettled by now; what was a person like him doing on Noveria? His questions would have to go unanswered though, as they were already filing into the elevator to leave. When they arrived at the office in question, they were confronted by a pair of security officers. Almost immediately the sound of guns being drawn echoed throughout the office and the two guards found themselves staring down the barrels of a large number of weapons.

'Freeze! Hanshan security. This office is sealed.' the female said, she was trying to sound assertive but the quivering Garrus could hear in her voice clearly told him she was scared.

'Lorik Qui'in gave me a pass in.' Shepard said, lowering her gun.

'Qui'in? Are you working for him? He's under investigation.'

'Anoleis is paying you to shake this place down. Does Captain Matsuo know you're here?'

'Hey, Anoleis is the one who want's Qui'in. He's got a varren up his ass about this guy.' she nervously looked around the office, 'Why don't you pretend you didn't see us and we'll pretend we didn't see you.' the woman said before walking off with her partner.

'Why didn't we shoot them? They were corrupt.' Wrex grumbled.

'They probably didn't have any choice, besides they didn't shoot us.' Shepard answered. The team began advancing cautiously through the office. Before long, gunshots could be heard as everyone scrambled for cover. Garrus kicked over a desk and hid behind it, switching to his sniper rifle. As Garrus peeked his head over the desk he saw three guards pinning them down from a balcony above them. One of the guards was spraying the wall Shepard was hiding behind with a blistering wall of bullets, effectively keeping her out of the fight. Fortunately, three enemies could not confine them all to cover and Garrus was being effectively ignored, so he took aim with his sniper rifle. With a single pull of the trigger the guard fell, brain matter exploding against the armour of his colleagues. They staggered back, looks of sheer horror on their faces at seeing one of their friends executed in such a brutal fashion. Seizing this opportunity, Wrex pulled one of the two remaining guards towards him with biotics. The poor man then received the full force of a krogan head-butt, causing him to fall limply to the floor. Before the final man could even process what just happened, he was riddled with holes as the remainder of the ground team opened fire on him.

As they neared the top of the stairs, two more guards ran out from behind a side room. Before they could release one shot, however, they both fell to the ground, clutching their throats as Thompson materialised out of thin air. Now the way was clear to Qui'in's personal office. Upon arrival, Shepard slid the OSD into the nearby computer. A few seconds later, a beeping noise was heard, signalling the end of the transfer. Shepard retrieved the OSD and began to leave the office, but stopped when she saw a small contingent of guards led by none other than Sergeant Stirling. Garrus permitted himself a grin: he was going to enjoy this.

'I don't think you're supposed to be in here Shepard.' she said, taking a few steps forward.

'You have me at a disadvantage, Miss…' Shepard said, a smirk beginning to form on her face.

'Oh, now you're going to show some respect? I'm Sergeant Kaira Stirling, Elanus Risk Control Services. Anoleis would throw you off world for what you did here. I won't. You know what we did to cop killers on my world?'

'You're searching a place you're not supposed to be in for bribe money. You know what we do to dirty cops on my world?' Wrex growled.

'I didn't want to fight them. They fired first.' Shepard answered, ignoring Wrex's comment.

'Well I don't need a gun, to rip you to pieces.' Stirling said, her squad drawing their weapons. _They're out in the open, facing superior odds. What do they think they're doing? _Garrus thought as he drew his assault rifle and opened fire. Suddenly, the trio of guards were wrapped in a blue glow and lifted into the air, courtesy of Liara. The otherwise trivial fight suddenly turned into a slaughter as they offloaded their weapons into the helpless forms. Within seconds they fell to the ground, very dead, and Shepard continued on her way. When they exited the elevator back onto the plaza, Parasini was waiting for them.

'Commander. There've been reports of noise from the Synthetic insights office. Would you know anything about it?' she said

'It's probably Anoleis' thugs ripping the place apart.' Shepard replied.

'Smartass huh? Well, I can work with that. Meet me at the hotel bar, before you speak to Qui'in.' Parasini walked off towards the bar elevator as Shepard looked at Thompson. He just shrugged and they followed the woman to the elevator. By the time they got to the bar Parasini was waiting for them in a secluded corner.

'Let me reintroduce myself: I'm Gianna Parasini, Noveria internal affairs.'

'Why is an internal affairs agent here?' Shepard asked.

'The board knows about Anoleis' corruption. I've been on his trail for months now. I want you to convince Qui'in to testify before the board. With his evidence, this planet could run profitably again.'

'I like that; we get our garage pass and put that arrogant bastard in jail. Everyone's happy.' Garrus said.

'So long as we get our garage pass, nothing else matters.' Shepard began to smirk again, 'Though taking Anoleis down would be a big bonus.'

'Don't worry; you'll get your pass.' Parasini replied, 'Just uphold your part of the bargain. When you've finished with Qui'in, you'll know where to find me.' she walked off towards the elevator.

'Well Shepard, looks like it's time for you to work that charm of yours.' Thompson said, a twinkle in his eye. Shepard winked at him, a sly smile touching the edges of her mouth.

'You guys wait here, I'll deal with this.' Shepard walked over to the Turian and began speaking with him. Qui'in became more and more agitated as the conversation went on, until eventually he just sat back in his chair and waved Shepard off. A pit began to form in Garrus' stomach until he saw the smile on Shepard's face, 'Well that's that seen to. Let's go talk to Parasini, I'm sure she'd love to finally make the arrest.'

* * *

><p>They entered the garage after showing the guard their pass and began making their way towards the Mako waiting for them there. Garrus felt uneasy as he walked through the silent room, he could feel something watching him. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and drew his pistol, but as soon as he took aim, it was gone.<p>

'Something wrong Garrus?' Shepard asked, diverting his attention.

'We're not alone here Shepard. I—' Garrus was interrupted by the sound of metal hitting metal. The squad turned to see a large number of geth closing in on their position.

'Shit.' someone said from nearby as everybody ran for the crates. Garrus' back slammed into the metal surface as bullets began flying all over the place. He drew his sniper rifle and waited for an opening. He didn't have to wait for long as the sound of bullets hitting his cover abated. Garrus looked around the corner to see Thompson in the thick of it, providing them with a distraction. Garrus aimed his rifle at a red geth platform holding a rocket launcher, about to fire at Thompson. With a sharp crack the first bullet impacted the geth's shields, knocking it back a step. Garrus unleashed another bullet on it before the shields fell. With one final pull of the trigger he sent a round flying through the glowing optics of the geth trooper, causing it to flicker and die. He surveyed the scene to find several geth suspended in the air while yet more were diving for cover from a geth prime that had turned on them. Garrus began picking off more geth platforms one by one, executing each with well-practiced precision. _Left. Breathe. Fire. Aim. Fire._ Suddenly the garage went silent as the last of the geth fell. The door opened behind them as Captain Matsuo stepped into the room, a look of disbelief on her face.

'Commander Shepard, what have you done here? Why are there geth everywhere?' she asked in an incredulous voice.

'You think I smuggled geth here just so I could kill them?' Shepard smirked, 'I'm all for improving my personal image but I think you've been watching too many vids.'

'Damn it, they must have been in Benezia-sama's crates.' Matsuo mumbled, ignoring Shepard, 'I'll have to go report to the board, if word of the geth gets out there will be an investor panic.' Garrus shook his head as the security Captain walked out of the garage. _Typical private sector police._ He thought as they began to file into the Mako. As usual, Garrus took his place next to Shepard, the now-familiar gunnery controls spread out in front of him. Shepard gunned the engines and the doors opened to reveal a raging blizzard. Garrus shivered uncomfortably even though the Mako was climate controlled: turians hated the cold with a passion and this frozen ball of rock was a far cry from the tropical climate of Palaven. Fortunately they could make out the edge of the pathway through the snow, so they didn't have to worry about falling. Before long they came across a tunnel that had been blockaded by the geth but Garrus made short work of them, the Mako cannon destroying a turret in a shower of sparks and molten metal and the machine gun ripping through the shields blocking their path. The smaller geth proved even less of a problem as Shepard crushed them under the weight of the Mako without slowing down.

The rest of the journey to Peak 15 went by in a similar manner, any geth resistance being destroyed by the power of the Mako's guns. Garrus was actually getting quite bored by the time they reached the facility and he was glad to be able to give his trigger finger some rest. After emerging from the Mako Garrus came to the conclusion that he _really _didn't like the cold. It was therefore with great relief that he walked through the doors into the Peak 15 research facility. They walked into a large, open area with crates scattered all around; the same crates as the ones in the garage. Garrus drew his assault rifle and prepared for a fight. Sure enough, within seconds a large number of geth platforms appeared, along with a few krogan. He noticed Thompson and Wrex make a beeline for the enemy krogan and so decided to confine himself to shooting at the geth targets. Firing up his omni-tool, Garrus launched an overload on the nearest geth, downing its shields, before spraying it with bullets. As soon as it fell to the ground he moved on, watching as another geth platform was lifted up into the air and thrown against the far wall. Garrus brought down the shields of another before being forced back into cover due to his weapon overheating. He muttered a curse under his breath as he switched to a pistol and jumped back into combat only to see his target writhing on the floor with electricity sparking across its metal frame.

Garrus turned just in time to see another geth running straight at him; he barely had time to leap out of the way before it was upon him. He landed on his back with a dull thud as the geth stood over him. It was just about to raise its shotgun when Garrus swung his legs into those of the geth, causing it to fall face-first onto the floor. He brought his pistol up to its head but the thing flailed its arms, causing him to lose his gun. With a snarl, Garrus closed his fingers into a fist and punched it in the head. Hard. Hard enough to knock out its optics. Garrus quickly grasped onto its head with both hands, pulling as hard as he could. With an almighty screech the metal sheared and the geth platform finally stopped moving. Grunting in pain from the dull ache where he had hit the ground, Garrus lay against the wall, trying to catch his breath. When he saw a pair of legs in front of him he realised the fight was over. Looking up he saw Commander Thompson, a mischievous smile on his face.

'Nicely done Garrus, remind me never to agree to spar with you.' Garrus just chuckled, too winded to make a proper comment as Thompson helped him to his feet. He bent down to retrieve his pistol and joined the rest of his squad by the door; noting on his way that there was an awfully large pool of blood around the krogan corpses. When he reached the top of the stairs he heard a VI mention something about a power outage, but he ignored it and continued on. When he walked through the door, Garrus was confronted by an odd sight: two deactivated turrets facing the wrong way.

'They must want to keep their own in more than they want to keep others out.' he mumbled as they walked through the corridor and into the elevator. When the elevator arrived, the squad emerged into a large room, with about five geth in it. Before the geth could even react, they had been destroyed by the concentrated firepower of Shepard's team. As they neared the centre of the room, Garrus became overwhelmed by a very strange scent, one that he had never experienced before. The entire team raised their weapons when they heard noises coming from the walls.

'Great, geth and wall-monsters. Definitely missing from my last visit.' Thompson said under his breath.

'Don't worry, I'll protect you.' Wrex chuckled as the noises grew closer. His laughing was cut short, however, when he caught sight of the source of the noises. They were like no creatures Garrus had ever seen; definitely insectiod, with two pods protruding from long, whip-like appendages. With a screech it came rushing at them, barely even slowing down, even with the sheer amount of bullets riddling its body. The two pods opened and shot a viscous, green liquid at Ashley. She just managed to dodge out of the way as the green liquid splashed up a concrete wall and began eating away at it. _Acid! This is going to make things interesting._ Garrus thought as Wrex ran up to it, bringing his shotgun to bear. He fired again and again, causing the thing's blood to splatter all over the floor. He continued beating it to a bloody pulp long after it was dead. Shepard walked over and touched his arm.

'Wrex, what the hell is wrong?' she asked. Wrex looked her in the eye before answering.

'These _things _aren't supposed to be here Shepard! My people destroyed them long ago, every single one!' Garrus reeled back at the implications of this.

'Damn.' he said, looking at the corpse again. Now that he thought about it, it did look like those old vids. He just didn't understand how they could be here, over a thousand years after their destruction.

'What the hell are rachni doing here?' Thompson asked.

'We'll just have to go and find out won't we?' Shepard said as they made their way up the stairs and to yet another elevator. As they slowly ascended upwards, Garrus could almost feel Wrex's anger. They walked out of the elevator to find more rachni, these ones considerably smaller than before, waiting for them. They ran towards the squad unbelievably fast and they only just managed to kill the small creatures before they could reach them. Each rachni exploded in a haze of acid. Next to the entrance was a backup power generator that had sustained some small amount of damage. Tali immediately began work on it and before long she had the power up and running, but apparently the VI was broken and would need to be fixed so Tali walked over to the back of the room and descended into the pit housing the station's VI interface databanks. Once again, the expert machinist had things running in no time at all and she resurfaced after only a few seconds in the hole before a holographic image of a woman appeared above the platform.

'It looks like you're trying to restore this facility. Would you like help?' it said

'You're the virtual intelligence that runs this place?' Shepard asked.

'This system is monitored to respond to the name "Mira". May I ask your name?'

'Commander Shepard, Citadel Tactics and Reconnaissance.' Garrus stopped listening at this point, as the VI then began to list the various tasks that would need to be done before they could reach Benezia. The first objective was the reactor core, so they headed there first. When they reached the bottom of the elevator, Garrus was glad to note that their opponents were geth; he hated facing those rachni. Garrus raised his pistol and nailed a geth platform that Liara raised into the air as Wrex charged forwards, letting all his anger loose in the heat of battle. Garrus saw Kaidan raise another geth while Ash shot it to pieces. Tali unleashed an overload on the nearest geth to her and Garrus took that opportunity to shoot it through the head. The fight was soon over and Tali walked over to the reactor core.

'The He3 fuel line's been cut; shouldn't be much of a problem, though.' she began fiddling with her omni-tool. Pretty soon the severed pipe was covered in a thick, grey ooze that hardened quickly. When the omni-gel was finished Mira's voice came over the intercom stating that the reactor was now online. With their first objective complete the team filed back into the elevator, bringing them up to the service room. As they began walking towards the tram lines Garrus noticed the strange scent had returned. He was about to warn his comrades but before he could say anything a panel was thrust back and one of the large rachni pinned Thompson to the ground. It began scratching at his armour, tearing great gouges in it, but upon seeing it being ineffective it reared back and opened up one of its pods. Just before it fired Wrex threw it out of the way, but some of the acid still hit Thompson's right arm as his face contorted in pain. Wrex proceeded to destroy the rachni with multiple shotgun blasts to the face while Shepard helped Thompson to his feet.

'Are you okay?' she asked, concern etched across her features.

'I'll be fine, the acid hasn't hit anything vital, though I doubt I'll be indulging in close combat anytime soon.' he said in a gruff voice. There was something Garrus didn't understand, however, that he intended to find out.

'You looked like you were in pain there, how's that possible?' Thompson turned to face him.

'The cybernetics I was given have nerve-simulators that hook up directly to my nervous system. Helps in combat, amongst other things. Hurts like a bitch when they plug it in though.' he answered, walking towards the door, 'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. We need to focus on the mission.' They piled into yet another elevator that would bring them to the tram lines. When they reached the top Garrus was assailed by the scent again, much stronger this time.

'We've got company.' he said, aiming his assault rifle at the door. As soon as the door opened Garrus caught sight of four large rachni surrounded by the smaller rachni. _Oh boy._ He thought, opening fire on the smaller creatures. He saw two of the large rachni get engulfed in a blue glow before being raised off the ground while a third became frozen in place. Garrus' assault rifle made short work of the little exploding things and once he had finished on them he turned his attention to the bigger rachni. The one untouched by biotics had made it half way across the room before being killed and the frozen one was beginning to move again, so he opened fire on that. The team pumped round after round into it before it finally succumbed to its injuries. Wrex ran forward as the two floating rachni hit the ground, grabbing one and hurling it against the wall, leaving the rest of the team to kill the other one. Before it died, however, it managed to get off one shot at Wrex, causing the krogan to grunt in pain as the acid seared through his armour. With a final screech of pain the last rachni fell and the team moved on.

'I'm beginning to hate these more than turians.' Wrex grumbled.

'I'm touched Wrex, does that mean we're friends now?' Garrus asked.

'Only until these things are dead. After that it's business as usual.' Garrus shook his head as Tali reconnected the tram lines. Once that was done they headed back to the server room and then made their way to the tram station.

* * *

><p>'Stand down.' said the lead human, the other two lowering their weapons. Shepard stepped forward, 'Sorry. We couldn't be sure what was on the tram.'<p>

'I'd only be upset if they fired.'

'Even hopped up on stims my guys know the rule: two legs good, four legs bad. Look. You're human, and that's enough that I won't shoot. But I'd like to know who you are.'

'My name's Shepard, I'm a spectre.' the man raised an eyebrow at this.

'Well I won't look a heavily armed horse in the mouth. Those things overran the hot labs a few days ago. The first we knew, the bastards were clawing into our command post. We had a lot more staff back then.'

'You were taken by surprise and had civilians to protect. You did a good job.'

'Yeah, well. It sure doesn't feel like it. The board sent an asari to clean up the mess. She went to the hot labs yesterday. We haven't heard from her since.'

'I'm not going to let any more of your people die.'

'Here's the key card for the hot labs elevator, you'll need it if you want to follow that asari. Oh, and if you need any first aid, Dr Cohen's down in the med bay.'

'I've got work to do.' Shepard said, turning to leave.

'Yeah, I hear tha—' he was interrupted by the sound of clawing in the vents, 'Aw hell, man the perimeter!' suddenly a pair of rachni emerged from behind them and the team sprang into action. Wrex immediately tackled one of them while Liara suspended the other in mid-air, allowing everyone else to shoot at it. Once both had been dealt with, they walked over to the elevator and made their way to the hot labs.

The neutron purge had been activated, but Garrus sensed something wasn't right. As the door opened back into the hot labs, he saw why; there were dozens of rachni in the room, all waiting to get a shot at them. Realising there was no way they could fight them all, the biotics in the team cleared them a path through the mass of creatures. Garrus ran as fast as his legs would carry him, diving into the elevator. As soon as the rest of the team was inside he hit the button and they started ascending. Garrus breathed a sigh of relief that suddenly turned into a gasp of pain. He found, to his horror, that some acid had splashed onto his arm. Thompson immediately grabbed at his armour, trying to tear it off before more acid could reach his skin. Garrus just stood there, his face contorted in pain, as the rest of the team tried desperately to help. After what seemed like an eternity the pain went away and was replaced with the cooling numbness of medi-gel. Garrus looked down to see that the armour around his left arm had been removed, exposing the acid burns. It wasn't pretty. Regardless, Garrus tried to continue on as though nothing had happened, despite the concerns of the team. They had more important things to do; like find out why they were lied to about Matriarch Benezia being in the hot labs. When they found the security chief, he was surrounded by a large group of armed soldiers that had not been there before.

'I'm sorry about this Shepard, we've got orders from Benezia. Open fire!' the security team drew their weapons just as Garrus dived behind cover. _The bastard sold us out!_ He thought, drawing his assault rifle. His first target was their leader, the one who had betrayed them. Opening up his omni-tool, Garrus selected the overload program, activating it on the leader. Before the man could retreat to safety, he received a burst to the head, courtesy of Garrus' assault rifle. The rest of the security team fell quickly, no match for trained professionals. Shepard walked through the nearest door and took the elevator down. When they arrived they saw a volus being held at gunpoint by an asari commando. Before words could be exchanged the commando ducked behind cover, throwing a biotic warp in their direction. The warp hit only air, however, as the squad scrambled for cover. In the end it was not necessary as Liara held the commando in a biotic lift, allowing Wrex to execute her with a single shotgun blast to the face.

'You should leave. Wherever I go, I am the only survivor.' said the volus.

'I won't let anything happen. Why was she trying to kill you?' Shepard asked.

'Why do you think? We failed. Saren sent the matriarch to remove us.' Liara looked startled at this.

'Benezia's alive? She's here?' the fear was clearly present in her voice.

'She ordered Ventralis to send you to the hot labs. She expected the rachni to kill you.'

'Just point me in the right direction.' Shepard said.

'Through the checkpoint, just keep going.' the volus walked off, muttering to himself about getting out of here. They walked through the door into a natural tunnel through the ice, and Garrus once again thought of how he hated the cold. As they slowly made their way through the tunnel, Garrus began to notice that scent again. When they rounded a corner, he saw the source: a single rachni. Within seconds, the creature was lying on the ground in a pool of its own blood, riddled with holes. They continued on through the tunnel until they reached a door, beyond which was a large room. In the centre of the room, accessible through a raised platform, was a containment tube. From where they were standing, Garrus couldn't tell what was in the tube. Standing in front of the glass container was an asari dressed all in black, with a very strange headdress. The figure turned towards them.

'You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness or despair.' she turned back to face the tank, 'Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies. I won't be moved by sympathy, no matter who you bring into this confrontation.'

'Liara's here because she wanted to be here, not because I forced her to come.' Shepard said.

'Indeed? What have you told her Liara?'

'What could I say mother? That you're insane? Evil?' Liara was getting more distressed, 'Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?'

'Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have.' Benezia asked, ignoring her daughter completely. Garrus could see Liara struggling to fight the urge to say something. Thompson could be heard mumbling something behind them.

'I have. That was a good mission; I'll have to tell you about it sometime.'

'I can't believe you'd kill your own daughter.'

'I now realise I should have been stricter.' Benezia clenched her fist, surrounding herself in a biotic glow. Suddenly, doors all around the room were flung open, revealing a number of asari commandoes. Garrus aimed his rifle at the foremost asari, only to be flung to the floor by their biotics. While getting up, he noticed Thompson was floating in mid-air. Aiming his rifle again, Garrus opened fire. The biotic barriers surrounding the asari absorbing the shots. He continued to fire, however, until he saw the shots begin connecting. With a single pull of the trigger, the asari's life was ended, the round piercing her throat. He saw another asari being flung against a nearby wall with a sickening crunch while the third received Ashley's shotgun to the face.

Benezia once again clenched her fists, this time sending a wave of geth at them. Garrus, Tali and Kaidan all activated overloads simultaneously, completely disabling their shields while Wrex, Ashley and Shepard tore through them with gunfire. Thompson was nowhere to be seen. The last geth was killed by Liara, who threw a box into it hard enough to shear its chest plate open. Next, Garrus heard a thud, and the body of an asari commando that had been sneaking up on them fell to the floor as Thompson materialised above her. Benezia called in one more wave of geth, dispatched just as easily as the last. Finally, Shepard and Liara walked over to Benezia, who was hunched over a console. It was at this point that Garrus saw the contents of the tube: a rachni much larger than any they had encountered.

'This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear.' she said, turning towards them.

'The rachni didn't cooperate with you, why should I?' Shepard asked, a scowl on her face.

'I will not betray him. You will—you…' Benezia paused, clutching at her head, 'You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions. Briefly. But the indoctrination is strong.' Liara looked shocked at this revelation, but seemingly decided against saying anything.

'So you could turn on me again?' Shepard asked.

'Yes. But it would not be my will. People are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolise him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign, his flagship. It is a dreadnought of considerable size and its power is extraordinary.'

'Sovereign's not like other ships, where did it come from?'

'I cannot say. It was not built by the geth. Its technology is far above that of any living species. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago.'

'Someone on Noveria found it?'

'The rachni inhabited that part of the galaxy. They can share information across generations. I took the knowledge from this queen. I was not gentle.'

'You can still make it right. Give me the information.'

'The data is on this OSD. Here, take it.'

'Knowing the coordinates is not enough. Do you know where Saren planned on going after there?' Liara asked. Garrus could hear a distinctly strained tone in her voice.

'I am afraid I do not. He would not tell me of his plans. You must find out his destination quickly. I transmitted the coordinates before you arrived.' Benezia once again clutched at her head, almost driven to her knees in pain, 'You have to stop—me. I can't—his teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine. You should—uh, you should—' Garrus could hear the pain in her voice. Benezia nearly collapsed on the floor and Liara tried to run forward to help her but Shepard held her back.

'Mother! You can fight this!' the despair in Liara's voice was almost unbearable, 'Please mother you have to fight him!'

'I was always proud of you Liara.' Benezia turned to look away, tears streaming down her face. All was silent for a few seconds before she turned to face them again. All emotion had been drained away and there was a hollow look in her eyes, 'Die.' she said, raising her arm. Before she could do anything, Shepard shot her in the chest. The round was not deflected at all; clearly Benezia was too exhausted to erect a barrier. She looked up at the ceiling.

'No light? They said there would be a…' her voice trailed off as she breathed her last breath. Liara ran forward, mourning over her mother's body as Shepard approached the console. The rachni began twitching slightly as they approached. Garrus heard a noise from behind him and was startled to see one of the asari commandoes stand up and begin shuffling towards the tube. It turned to face the group.

'This one. Serves as our. Voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low. Spaces. Your musics are. Colourless.' the asari said in a hauntingly stilted voice.

'What are you talking about?' Shepard asked.

'Your way of communicating is strange. It does not colour the air. When we speak, one moves all.' this time the voice was considerably less stilted, 'We are the mother. We sing for those who are silenced. We are rachni.' Shepard took a few steps towards the tank.

'You're controlling her?'

'She is weak to urging. We sing through touchings of thought. She has colours we have no names for. She is ending. You are not in harmony with those who seek to control us. What will you sing?' Wrex stepped forward.

'Shepard, you have to kill her. Those tanks are full of acid. Use them. My people fought and died to kill these things. You can't let her live.' Garrus decided to voice his opinion.

'For once, I agree with the krogan. These things are a menace to the galaxy, they need to be killed.' Ashley was the next one to speak.

'We shouldn't be making this decision. It's the Council's problem.'

'If we hand them over to the Council, that will be the same as killing them ourselves.' Kaidan argued, 'There'd be no point.'

'We have the chance to right a terrible wrong here Shepard. The galaxy made a mistake with the rachni.' Liara said. Tali nodded her head.

'I agree. Genocide is wrong, it doesn't matter who's the target.'

'Your companions speak the truth. You can free us, or silence us forever.' the rachni said. Shepard turned to Thompson.

'You're the only one who hasn't said anything. What do you think?' He took a long time to answer.

'Who are we to say that they should die? What gives us the right to be the arbiter of justice? To condemn an entire race to the annals of history? Genocide is wrong, yet we inflict it upon them. Why? Because they would do the same to us? Because they are a danger to the galaxy? No. It is because they don't look like us, so it's easier to do. Would we do the same if the turians tried to take over? Or the asari? No. We wouldn't.' he turned to Wrex, 'You've been on the receiving end of a genocide campaign Wrex. Do you really wish that on another people for no other reason than because your ancestors fought them?' Wrex stared at him for a few seconds before answering.

'No. I guess not.'

'Exactly. I will still follow you, regardless of your decision Shepard. But I know where my vote lies.' Garrus was gobsmacked. He had thought Thompson would join him but instead he was in favour of saving it. Garrus decided he would never understand humans, although it was a good point Thompson raised. So he wasn't surprised when Shepard decided to free the rachni. She turned away from the now empty tube and turned her eyes to the ceiling.

'The Council's just going to _love_ this.'


	9. Chapter 9: Doctor Saleon

**Author's Note:** Sorry for being a bit late again, took a lot longer than I thought it would. I'm going off to uni at the end of this month so I have no idea how often I will be able to upload but I shall try to do so as often as possible.

* * *

><p>John sat on the edge of his bed, examining his hand. After the mission on Noveria, they had returned to the citadel to repair the damage to their armour. While they were there, John went to the same mechanic that had built his cybernetics for him all those years ago, to replace his arm. The procedure had been excrutiatingly painful, but he was used to it. The sleek design and polished surface were in stark contrast to the clunky gunmetal of his leg. In a way, John felt as though he had lost a part of himself all over again: that arm had seen him through many a conflict, and he was sad to see it go. He was, however, glad for the opportunity to upgrade the old technology; this arm was much stronger and more efficient. The mechanic had also included a few upgrades, responding enthusiastically to John's ideas. An eezo core had been added and linked to his cerebral cybernetics, to allow him to change the mass of the arm as situation required. He also had a retractable blade mounted to the wrist, just in case he was ever caught without his armour. John became lost in his memories; the cold, metal limbs summoning images of missions long ended. After some time, he became aware of another presence in his room. It was Shepard.<p>

'Did you want something?' John asked. Shepard crossed her arms.

'You should have told me you were going to get your arm replaced. I would have gone with you.' she said in a quiet voice.

'That's exactly why I didn't tell you. I didn't want you to be there… it's not pleasant.' Shepard's eyes were filled with tears.

'But you shouldn't be alone!' she shouted, 'I know how painful it is without the sedatives. You don't have to act as though you don't feel it, because I know you do.' Her arms fell to her side, hands balled into fists, accompanied by the sound of her tears hitting the floor, 'Whatever you do, wherever you go, you're always alone. I just—don't want you to be alone anymore…' John stood up, wrapping his arms around her. Shepard just sobbed into his shoulder as he sat her down on the bed.

'This isn't just about me, is it? What else happened?' Shepard leaned back, taking her head off his shoulder and forced a wan smile.

'You always could see straight through me.' she said before emitting a humourless laugh, 'I ran into Lieutenant Zabaleta on the way here.' John blinked a few times before answering.

'Really? I didn't expect that, how was the old dog?' He knew the lieutenant because he was on the team that rescued him on Mindoir.

'Not good; he's hit rock bottom. He started drinking after Mindoir, ended up getting discharged for it. Now he's just wandering around, trying to scrape together enough creds for another drink.' John frowned at this: Zabaleta was a good man and he didn't deserve this.

'Well, we'd better sort that out right away.' he said, standing up.

'What, right now?' Shepard asked incredulously, 'I can't go out in this state.' She indicated her hair and puffed up eyes.

'Why not? You were perfectly happy to go out after our graduation party.' Shepard let out a short laugh.

'That's because I was so drunk I didn't care who saw me.' she began smiling, 'In fact, I remember that it was you who decided that going out with shaved eyebrows was a good idea.' John assumed a hurt expression.

'How was I supposed to know that the whole year would turn up outside our dorm?' Shepard began laughing properly now.

'The look on your face was priceless.' John smiled at her.

'Now that you're a bit more cheery, let's get you cleaned up.' He began helping her up.

'I don't know how you do it; one minute I'm crying and the next you've got me laughing. It's unbelievable.'

'Maybe it's my irresistible charm and wit.' John said with a sly smile. Shepard looked at him for a moment before bursting out with laughter. John assumed a hurt expression again, 'Why is that so funny?' he asked, causing Shepard to laugh even harder. He just shook his head as he walked her over to the sink and began helping her tidy herself up.

* * *

><p>'John? What the hell are you doing here?' Lieutenant Zabaleta asked, confusion clear on his face.<p>

'Well, I was in the neighbourhood and when Shepard told me you were here I just had to see for myself.' Thompson said with a smile. They were back in the wards access, where Shepard had first met Zabaleta. She'd never seen the man before then but she had heard of him: Hannah would always speak very highly of the lieutenant.

'Well I'm glad you're here kid, it's always good to see a friendly face. How've the years treated you?'

'Not bad, how about yourself? I didn't think you were cut out for civilian work.' Thompson pointed at the lieutenant's clothes.

'I quit a while back, military work didn't agree with me. But other than that, life's good.' Zabaleta swayed slightly, it seemed he was still as drunk as the last time Shepard was here. Thompson looked at him for a long time before answering.

'I know that's not true.' he said in a quiet voice, 'You can't forget what happened on Mindoir. Something like that, it doesn't leave you.' Zabaleta became angry at this.

'Well how am I supposed to forget? You were there, you should know what it's like living with the memories!' The lieutenant clutched at his head, 'The screams of the dying, people being dragged through the mud, thrown into cages like animals! But we couldn't help them. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get past those damn batarians! They were laughing at us. Laughing as they loaded the last of the people onto their ship and escaped.' Zabaleta's back hit the wall, 'I can still hear the screams, the laughter. Every time I close my eyes I see the bloodied and tortured people being crammed onto the ship. Drinking is the only way I can stop it.' Shepard stepped forward.

'It wasn't your fault, you couldn't have done any more to save them. Besides, you got John, didn't you?' Zabaleta stared at her for a moment.

'Yeah, we did get John. That's something, I guess. I just wish we could have done more to help the others.'

'So does my mother. I sent her a message earlier, telling her about you. She still cares for you, you know. They all do.' He looked down at the floor.

'Hannah always was good to me, looked out for me.' Shepard put a hand on his shoulder.

'You deserve better than this. She said you should go to the Veteran's Affairs Office, they can help you there.'

'The VAO? All they do there is pump you full of stims. But if that's what Hannah wants, then I'll do it. For her.' he began to walk down the corridor, 'See you later kid.' he said before disappearing around the corner. Thompson looked after him for a moment, his eyes full of an emotion Shepard didn't recognise before he turned around and walking back to his hotel room. Shepard followed shortly after, thinking about what had just happened. She was so lost in thought, she almost missed the person standing outside the door to her room.

'Shepard, I need your help with something.' the turian said in his strangely flanged voice. Shepard looked up to see it was Garrus.

'Of course Garrus, what do you need?'

'Well, I recently received some coordinates that I'd like checked out. If we have the time that is…'

'I don't see why not. What's so important about them?' Garrus shifted uncomfortably.

'It's about one of my C-Sec cases. It's a long story.' Shepard opened the door to her room.

'I've got time, let's talk about it inside.' Garrus' mandibles went slack in shock.

'Alright.' He said after a few moments, nervously glancing up and down the corridor. When he walked inside his eyes darted everywhere, examining everything. _What the hell is that about?_ Shepard thought, sitting down on her bed. Garrus seemed to shake himself out of whatever was bothering him and he sat down on the chair on the opposite side of the small room.

'A few years ago, we noticed that the black market was being flooded with organs.'

'That couldn't have been good, was there an increase in murders as well?'

'That's just the thing; we couldn't find who the organs belonged to. There was so many of them we thought that they were being mass harvested but nothing seemed to have changed. We thought that they could have been cloned but we never found a lab big enough to produce them all. Anyway, we managed to trace it back to a salarian doctor. We were interrogating one of his employees when he started to bleed.'

'How bad was this interrogation?' Shepard asked disapprovingly.

'It wasn't like that; we couldn't just beat people up on a hunch. We were just asking him questions when this blood patch appeared on his clothes. When the bleeding didn't stop we had him sent to the med lab. Turns out the good doctor was growing those organs _inside_ his people.' Shepard reared back in revulsion.

'Holy shit. Please tell me you nailed the bastard.' Garrus looked down at the floor.

'Well that's just the thing; he got away on a ship. I tried to get it shot down but Pallin just wouldn't listen. He escaped with about twenty hostages. Who knows what sick things he did to them.'

'Killing civilians is never right Garrus. But C-Sec should have done _something_. I guess that's where we come in?' Garrus nodded.

'They found his ship, but it's outside of council space. We'd need the Normandy to get there without causing a war with the Terminus systems.'

'Then we'll go as soon as the repairs are finished.' Garrus stood up and walked out of the room. Just before he closed the door he turned back to face Shepard.

'Thanks Shepard. This means a lot to me.' he said.

'Anytime Garrus. Anytime.' Garrus closed the door, leaving Shepard alone with her thoughts. She sank back into her bed, going over what had just happened in her mind. _Why was Garrus so nervous? Do I intimidate him? I'll have to ask Thompson later: he's very perceptive._ Shepard rolled over and sighed, _I hope Garrus isn't intimidated by me; he's a good friend to have. _She began drifting off to sleep, her last thoughts concerning her crew.

* * *

><p>'Thompson.' Said the krogan in his usual, gruff manner.<p>

'Wrex.' John responded.

'Did you want something? Or were you just here to say that?'

'I've been thinking—'

'Be careful, that never ends well.' Wrex interrupted. John gave him a disapproving look.

'Regardless… I was wondering what the hell you do around here. Most people have something to occupy their time but all you seem to do is eat and stand perfectly still.'

'I'm a thousand years old, human. Got a lot of memories to keep me busy.'

'Any good ones?'

'Well there was that one time the turians almost wiped out my entire race. That was fun.' John crossed his arms.

'Anything a bit more upbeat?'

'What about when I killed my father?'

'A little better. I heard about that when I was on Tuchanka, though I'm sure the stories that filtered down to me had very little truth in them.' Wrex snorted.

'I don't doubt that, those short-sighted fools probably made me look like a quadless coward because of my time as chief.' John was surprised at this: he knew that Wrex was the heir to a clan, but he had no idea that the old krogan used to be a clan chief.

'You were a clan chief?'

'I was. Headed my own small clan. My father's was bigger than mine. After the krogan rebellions were put down I tried to get the krogan to focus on breeding for a few generations. My father didn't like that; he was an idiot who wanted to keep fighting, no matter what. One day, he called me to a crush at the burial grounds.'

'Shit, really?'

'Yeah, I knew it was a trap, but there are some things even we hold sacred. When he found out I wasn't going to change my mind he had his men open fire. I managed to stick a knife in his gut before getting out of there. Left the planet not long after.'

'I can't imagine what it must be like to kill your own father.'

'He was an ass. I couldn't care less.' John shook his head.

'I'll never understand what goes on in that head of yours. See you later Wrex.'

'Thompson.' the krogan said as John walked over to Ashley's workstation.

'Hey.' he said, causing Ash to turn and face him.

'Thompson. Need something?'

'Just checking in, wanted to see if the bruises had healed.' John said with a smirk. Ash scowled at him.

'Hey, you didn't beat me that badly. I reckon I'll get you next time.' John raised an eyebrow.

'Oh really? How about a little bet?' Ashley's eyes began to sparkle mischievously.

'The loser buys the winner lunch next time we have shore leave.'

'Sounds good to me. When are we going to do this?'

'Garrus wants us to hunt down that doctor, so how about after we kick his ass?'

'I don't see why not, should give you a little time to prepare.'

'You watch yourself Thompson. It won't be so easy this time.' John shook his head as he walked away. _Why is it every time I talk to Ash we end up scheduling a fight?_ He thought as he approached Garrus.

'How is our resident turian today?' John asked, startling Garrus, 'I'm sorry, didn't mean to surprise you.'

'No, that's alright. I was just thinking.'

'Thinking about that doctor?' Garrus let out a sigh.

'Yeah. His name's Saleon. Or it certainly was, now it's "Doctor Hart." His idea of a sick joke.' John locked eyes with Garrus for a moment, seeing all of the emotions hidden beneath the surface.

'You really want him dead, don't you?' he said in a quiet voice. Garrus looked down at the ground and was silent for a long time.

'I've seen some sick things in my time, but he was something else. Used his employees as lab rats, killed a few C-Sec officers with biological weapons. Who knows what twisted experiments he's been doing on those civilians because I couldn't stop him.'

'It's not your fault Garrus, there was nothing you could have done to stop him.' Garrus looked back up, a fire in his eyes.

'Exactly! I've never felt so helpless before, just watching his ship disappear without any resistance.' A sinister grin began to creep onto his face, 'But now, because of Shepard, I'll have my chance to make things right again.' John looked at the turian, seeing the vehemence and determination behind those words. He didn't like what he saw.

'Listen Garrus, I know how much you want to kill him, but don't let him get to you. If you do, he's won.' Some of the rage left the turian's eyes.

'I guess you're right. I'm still going to kill him though.'

'After what he's done, it might be too quick. Just remember, he's a cop killer, and from what I've heard, C-Sec interrogators don't take too kindly to them.' Garrus' eyes lit up again.

'No, they don't. Maybe killing him isn't the only option after all.' John turned around, saying his farewells and headed to the elevator. When it reached the top, he saw Shepard talking to Kaidan, so he decided to leave them be and go see Liara.

'Liara.' he said as he walked into the room.

'Thompson.' the asari responded, turning her chair to face him, 'Is there something you wanted?'

'I just came here to talk, we haven't done so since before Noveria.'

'You mean before I killed my mother?' John nodded, 'I am fine, if that is what you were thinking. I shall continue to remember her as the woman she was, not the woman she became under Saren.' A sad smile worked its way onto her face, 'I am trying to bring back fond memories, but I am afraid that I have little to work with; mother was always distant.'

'You're lucky to have any fond memories of her at all.' John said, a hint of regret lacing his voice as his thoughts turned to his own parents. Liara gave him a confused look.

'What do you mean by that?'

'I used to live on the human colony of Mindoir. When I was six it was attacked by batarian slavers. I was the only one to get out; everyone else was dead or worse. Including my parents. I don't really remember much before that.' Liara gasped in shock.

'Oh my! That must be a horrible burden, to be unable to remember one's own parents.' John shrugged.

'I don't think about it all that often, it's all behind me now anyway.'

'I'm sorry that I reminded you of that, I really didn't mean to-' John decided to stop her before she got any further.

'It's alright Liara, you didn't know.' Liara didn't say anything as she sat there, blushing furiously. At least, John thought she was blushing; he had never seen an asari as flustered as Liara was. It was cute. Before they could continue their conversation, Shepard's voice came over the intercom.

'We're about ten minutes from the MSV Fedele, I want the ground team suited up and waiting at the airlock before we get there.' John looked at Liara, they both nodded and without a further word being said they headed towards the elevator, where Kaidan was waiting for them. Upon arriving at the cargo hold the trio walked over to the lockers, where the rest of the team were already donning their armour. John ran his hand over the sleek, pitch-black chestplate; the familiar armour bringing to his mind images of some of his more memorable missions. Snapping himself out of his nostalgic reverie, he quickly assembled his gear and moved over to the elevator. As the doors opened onto the crew deck, John reached over to make sure his sword was clear in its scabbard: he had a feeling that he would be needing it rather soon. John approached the airlock, where he saw Shepard awaiting their arrival. Before he had a chance to say anything, Joker's voice was heard coming from the cockpit.

'We're about to board now Commander.' Shepard nodded.

'Any lifesigns aboard?' she asked.

'Not that I can tell. Somebody really went to town on it; all of the escape pods have been jettisoned and most systems seem inoperable.'

'Life support?'

'Just about working, you should be fine as long as you don't spend all day there.'

'If things go well we'll be out before we see the effects.'

'You sure about that? I hear creepy ghost ships make great holiday destinations.' Shepard smiled then shook her head.

'Maybe for the reclusive pilots, I prefer somewhere sunny.'

'Oh yeah, pick on the cripple.' Joker said, eliciting a slight chuckle from Shepard. John permitted himself a smile as he looked upon the rest of the crew; Garrus seemed particularly agitated. Shepard must have picked up on this because now she addressed him.

'You okay with this?' the turian nodded.

'I'll be fine Shepard. It's just… will he be there? I mean, no lifesigns and the escape pods are gone. What if he isn't there?'

'We'll get him, don't worry. Even if he isn't here, we'll hunt him down. He won't get away, not this time.' Garrus looked down at the floor, then back up at Shepard.

'I…thanks, Shepard. Just…thanks.'

'Getting soft turian?' Wrex asked, causing Garrus to start growling.

'Getting even, krogan.' Upon hearing this, Wrex began to laugh; a low rumbling noise that seemed to emanate from his chest.

'I like this Garrus. Can we keep him?' Before Garrus could respond the ship juddered slightly and the inner airlock door opened.

'And that's our cue to leave.' Shepard said, leading the team into the airlock. After a few seconds the other airlock door slid open, revealing a gloomy corridor.

'Great, dimly lit corridors in a ship with barely any life support, not knowing what could be around the next corner.' Kaiden said.

'What's wrong LT? Scared of the dark?' Ashley asked lightly.

'It's not that Ash; something happened here and whoever did it might not have left.'

'There aren't any lifesigns LT, what are you afraid of?' Shepard turned to look at her.

'Synthetics don't emit thermal signatures Ash, we should be wary in case they left something here.' the gunnery chief nodded.

'I'll keep my head on a swivel just in case skipper, but for the record, I don't think we'll find anything here.'

'Noted.' Shepard turned back to face the corridor, there were doors on each side and another one at the far end, 'The schematics show that these rooms were the crew quarters, the door at the far end should lead to the central chamber with the cockpit and medical labs on the other side. Everybody take a door, we don't want to miss something important.'

John walked over to the closest door on the right, opening it to be greeted by darkness. He quickly fired up his omni-tool light and illuminated the room, which contained eight bunks and another door on the far wall. Slowly creeping forward, John examined every surface for a hidden danger. He managed to make it to the other door without event, however, and pushed the button to open it. The room on the other side was the bathroom for the eight crewmembers that had slept here. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, John re-joined his squad, who were waiting by the door at the end of the corridor.

Without a word they pressed the button and began slowly walking into the dark chamber. There were crates stacked everywhere, cutting off their line of sight; not that they could see far in the darkness anyway. They slowly began to move towards the other end of the room, keeping their eyes trained on the inky blackness. Suddenly, John heard a clattering noise from his right. Before he could react, he was driven to the floor by something humanoid. John tried to throw the thing off but it was impossibly strong. Without warning, the form was lifted off his chest, and John looked up to see what appeared to be a husk suspended in mid-air and surrounded by a biotic glow before it was hurled off into the darkness. John peered over to the rest of the squad to see Liara standing there, wrapped in the same glow. Before he had a chance to thank her, the room erupted with a thunderous chorus of moans and more husk-things charged at them out of the darkness.

Quickly getting to his feet, John drew his sword and faced the nearest enemy. With a powerful thrust, he drove the blade through the husk's torso before kicking it to the ground. It continued to thrash about, however, so John grabbed his pistol with his left hand and executed it with a head shot. He turned just in time to see another enemy lunge at him. John swung his sword in an arc, the tip whistling though the air, severing the husk's arms at the wrist before he brought up his pistol and landed a shot right between its eyes. A third husk came running at him, but was intercepted by a shotgun blast from Tali. John glanced at his radar and saw another five dots moving towards them, but only one was approaching from his direction, so he decided to do something a bit different. With an almighty heave, John hurled his sword at the enemy, the blade embedding itself deep in the husk's head. After retrieving his sword, John looked at the rest of his squad to see that the only damage sustained in the attack was a nasty cut above Ashley's eyebrow, which Kaiden was already seeing to.

'Well, that accounts for all of the crew, but how did they get turned into husks? I don't see any dragon's teeth around here.' Shepard said, walking over to one of the corpses.

'These aren't husks.' Tali said as she examined a body, 'They don't look machine enough. Besides, this one is a turian. All the husks we've seen were human.'

'Whatever they are, Saleon's behind it.' Garrus said, anger clear in his voice. _He'll be blaming himself for this. _John thought, _I'll have to talk to him back on the Normandy. _They continued on through the room, moving even more cautiously than before. Eventually, they made it to the other side of the ship; on their left were the escape pod chambers, all empty. There were also two doors, presumably leading to the cockpit and the med labs. When they opened the door on their right, they saw a horrific scene: there were numerous metal tables covered in the dried blood of many species. Blue, purple and more than a few dark red. A few of the consoles were still displaying details of the last surgical procedure done with them, and what John saw there made him feel ill. The smell of death pervaded the room and not a word was said as the team examined the space for any trace of Saleon's whereabouts. Finding nothing of any further interest, they quickly exited the room and made their way to the cockpit. Tali began to work at the pilot's console and before long, she stumbled across the information they needed.

'It looks like only one of the escape pods contained a passenger, the rest were jettisoned as a safety procedure.' Garrus walked over to the seat.

'Does it say where he is?' The eagerness in his voice was tangible, and John honestly couldn't blame him: he was starting to feel the same way.

'The escape pods were fitted with tracking devices so that they could be found easily, I should be able to upload the coordinates to the Normandy.'

'How long will it take us to get there?' Shepard asked.

'Not long, I'd say less than an hour.'

'Then let's get to it.'

* * *

><p>The MSV Soura was civilian freighter, and completely unremarkable. Unless you count the fact that it was completely immobile. Unlike the Fedele, the Soura had fully functional life support and all the escape pods were still on-board, but nobody was responding to their hails, so they assumed the worst. Joker brought them in and the airlock opened up, revealing a ship just as well lit as the previous one. The team advanced in silence as an all-too-familiar situation confronted them. They walked through the quarters cautiously, examining every room, hoping to find something, anything, that would point them in the right direction. As they neared the centre of the ship, they heard a noise from behind one of the doors. Quickly getting into position, they prepared for the worst. When they opened the door, relief washed over them as they saw a group of ten people. Living people.<p>

'Who are you?' one of them asked, lowering the gun he had pointed at the door. He had a wound on his left arm that was bleeding badly.

'I'm Commander Shepard, a Spectre.' Shepard answered as the man sighed heavily.

'Finally, some help. We've been trapped in here for days.'

'What happened?' he looked down at the ground.

'A few weeks ago, we found this escape pod, had a salarian in it. Wouldn't say what happened to him but he looked pretty shaken up. Turns out he was a doctor; we couldn't believe our luck. We were just coming back from a delivery when we contracted some sort of virus we found on planet.' the man let out a short, humourless laugh, 'If only we knew what this doctor would do to us. One day, we were attacked by these _things. _They used to be the crew, before that bastard got a hold of them. Now he's locked himself up in the med bay he fashioned for himself and disabled the engines. And the lights. Every so often it'll go dark, then they show up to drag more of us away for his experiments. What you see here is all that's left of a crew of fifty. We've just been sitting here, waiting for them to take us. We can't escape: he locked down the escape pods.'

'We're here now, and we've brought a ship. Kaidan, take them back to the Normandy and get them fixed up.' Shepard said, turning to the lieutenant.

'Aye aye Commander.'

'Thank you so much Shepard, we'd lost hope of surviving.' she didn't answer as Kaidan took the people out of the room and guided them back to the airlock. The rest of the team quickly moved on, going as quickly as they dared towards the other end of the ship. Just before they reached Saleon's hiding place, Garrus heard a groan behind them. Everybody stopped moving and turned to face the source of the noise. A single figure shambled out of the darkness towards them, its disfigured face glowing slightly in the dim light. Garrus raised his pistol and shot it through its head. Suddenly, the groaning amplified as more creatures rushed at them from the shadows. This time, the team was ready, and with a grim determination they cut down their unnatural foes. Almost as soon as the fight started, it was over, and they continued on towards their goal. Before long, they reached the door where Saleon was hiding.

'Ready?' Shepard asked. Garrus' mind was a turmoil of emotion; he couldn't believe that after all this time, he was finally going to bring Saleon to justice.

'Ready.' he said, trying to clear his mind. Shepard hit the button, revealing a brightly lit med lab, almost identical to the one on the Fedele, apart from the bloodstains, which were all red. Standing in the centre of the room was a salarian that Garrus immediately recognised.

'Saleon.' he said with a deep growl. Garrus took a step forward and raised his pistol to point at the doctor's head.

'Garrus?' Saleon sounded startled, 'How did you find me?'

'It doesn't matter, what does matter is that I'm finally going to kill you.'

'You can't do that, that's not like you Garrus.' The salarian looked frantically at Shepard, 'You! You look like you're in charge, I'll give you whatever you want, just let me go!' she shook her head.

'Not an option.' Saleon looked back at Garrus, but by this time, he had stopped listening. He was shrouded in silence, all that existed was his gun, and Saleon. Garrus' finger twitched over the trigger, unable to bring itself to fire. Emotions raged around his head, each trying to gain the upper hand, to end this conflict. Time went on as Garrus' mind was locked in a battle with itself, one part of his mind screaming at him to pull the trigger and let justice be done, but the other part not letting him, trying to remind him of something important. As if from a great depth, Garrus heard a voice.

'It's your choice Garrus, but you'd better be prepared to face the consequences.' It was Shepard's voice. Suddenly, Garrus remembered his conversation with Thompson from before the mission. _'Listen Garrus, I know how much you want to kill him, but don't let him get to you. If you do, he's won.'_ It wasn't much, but it was enough to tip the balance. With a trembling hand, he slowly lowered his pistol.

'He's not worth the bullet. Send him to C-Sec and let him rot, we have more important things to kill.' Garrus' voice sounded hoarse as he turned to Shepard. When he looked in her eyes he saw one thing he never expected to see: respect. She respected his decision, and the realisation almost brought him to his knees after the emotional rollercoaster he'd just been through.

'I'm sorry, but that just isn't going to happen.' Saleon began to draw a pistol, but before he could even get halfway, Thompson shot him in his hand, rendering it useless. Wrex walked over to him and grabbed both of his arms, dragging him off kicking and screaming, back to the Normandy, the rest of the team followed suit. Only Garrus and Shepard remained.

'Garrus, I'm proud of you. Not many people would have the strength to do that. I'm glad you didn't stoop to his level.' Garrus only looked down at the floor, feeling too weak to speak. He felt a hand on his arm, 'Come on, let's get you back to the Normandy, you look like you could use some rest.' He just nodded, allowing Shepard to take him back by slinging one of his arms over her shoulders. As she slowly dragged him back to their ship, his eyes began to droop as weariness took hold of him and before long he had descended into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	10. Chapter 10: Ghosts of the Past

**Author's Note: **Well hello again, it has been a while hasn't it? (Sorry about that by the way, unforeseen circumstances and all that.) I'm going to university tomorrow, which may or may not affect upload times. Hopefully it might motivate me to do some more writing. At the moment I've got _huge_ writers block, so my next chapter may be a while in coming. Finally, I hope you enjoy my latest upload, It's a bit darker than my previous work, but I really enjoyed writing it.

* * *

><p>John sighed as he tapped away at his terminal; once again, he was bereft of sleep. The recurring dreams he had suffered from for as long as he could remember had returned, though they were growing infrequent. By now, John was used to functioning without much rest, though he mostly had neural implants to thank for that; work in project Vindicare often required sleepless nights, and their superiors wanted them to be prepared. John looked bitterly down at the list Tali and Adams had given him; it never ceased to amaze him how there were so many faults on a ship this advanced. <em>Ah well, you wanted some work to occupy your time, now you have it. <em>He thought as he opened up a new programme; apparently one of the engine's primary discharge capacitors was bleeding energy into a nearby shielding coolant system and would require re-wiring. Before John could walk over to the maintenance duct, Shepard walked through the engineering deck door.

'Ah, John, thought you'd still be up.' she said, taking a few steps towards him.

'Dreams kept me awake, what's your excuse?'

'Prothean visions won't leave me alone.'

'Well, at least you know how I feel now.' John said, chuckling softly as Shepard walked over to the railing overlooking the drive core. She was silent for a long time, just staring into the pulsating blue orb that formed the heart of the Normandy.

'Did you want something?' John asked, joining her by the railing. She shrugged.

'Company I suppose, were you doing anything important?'

'Nothing I can't do later.' There was another silence.

'Garrus told me about what you said to him. Seemed to strike a chord, helped him make his choice.' John grunted.

'Good, I've been there before, gone down that road. Killing in cold blood for revenge is not an experience I'd wish on anybody.' Shepard turned to look at him.

'Then why didn't you say that instead of the whole thing about letting Saleon win?'

'Because he wouldn't believe it. I know I wouldn't were I in his position. I had to say something to steer him down the right path, I didn't want him to make the same mistakes I did.'

'So there is a heart in there.' Shepard said jokingly. John smirked at her.

'Hey, don't go spreading it around, I have a reputation to keep.' Shepard just laughed softly, staring back at the drive core. After another long silence, she spoke again.

'He looks up to you, you know that? Sees you as some great, honourable warrior.'

'Me? I'm a survivor, an assassin maybe, but an honourable warrior?' he shook his head, 'I'm just another killer in a galaxy full of them. You sure he wasn't talking about you? You have the track record: holding the line at Elysium, leading the assault on Aigai and now spearheading the crusade against the reapers.'

'You give yourself far too little credit, most of what I've done, I couldn't have done without your help.'

'I still think his trust is misplaced, people who trust me always end up dead.'

'This is about Samantha, isn't it?' it seemed more like a statement than a question.

'So what if it is? Doesn't change anything.' Shepard sighed.

'You're going to have to let go eventually, it's not healthy.'

'We'll see Jane, we'll see.' Shepard took one last look at the drive core before turning to the exit.

'I'll let you get back to your work, if you ever feel like talking… you know where to find me.' she said as she left the room, leaving John alone with his thoughts.

_Why is everyone saying that to me? _He walked over to the maintenance duct and entered, crawling his way over to the problem area. Upon close inspection, it transpired that a completely superfluous wire had been installed and given inappropriate shielding, causing the electricity to drain into the coolant system. John had no idea how such a serious problem had gone overlooked for so long; if the wire had sagged a few inches further down it could overload the coolant system, causing a catastrophic shield collapse at a rather unfortunate moment. John sighed to himself as he brought his arm up to the wire. _At least it's an easy fix. _ He thought, engaging the plasma cutter in his cybernetic arm, severing both ends of the unnecessary wire. Holding it in his hands, he silently cursed whoever decided it was necessary to add an extra wire to the discharge matrix without shielding it properly. After replacing the metal panel covering the circuitry he crawled back to the engineering deck, only to find Garrus standing there. _This is just ridiculous; can nobody sleep on this damn ship? _He thought, walking over to the turian's side.

'You okay?' he asked.

'Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I was just tired earlier. Hadn't slept since I found Saleon's coordinates.' John's eyebrow shot up.

'Shit, really? I'm surprised you could stand up after that.' A smile crept onto Garrus' face.

'I didn't, remember?' John laughed quietly at this.

'Good point. You know Shepard carried you all the way to the med bay?' Garrus gave him a strange look.

'No, I didn't.' He was silent for a moment before asking John a question, 'She's very… unusual. Unlike any woman I've ever met. What do you think of her?'

'Why do you ask?' Garrus' eyes darted to the side for a split second.

'Just curious about my commanding officer is all. Everywhere I've served my superiors were all the same: strict, impersonal, professional. But Shepard is…different. I wanted to know why.' John looked over at the drive core, slightly suspicious of the turian's motive.

'Well…there's not much to know really, most of it's in her file. Assuming it's not classified now she's a spectre. Grew up on Alliance ships, wherever her mother could leave her while on assignments. Never stayed in one place for long, so she didn't really have a place to call home. Don't know much about her father except the fact she almost never saw him; doesn't talk about him much. Then there's her service record: led the assault on a pirate base on the planet Aigai, single-handedly defended a pirate attack on Elysium.'

'I knew that already, I was asking about what you thought of her personally.'

'I see. Her psych report covers that: generous, kind, outgoing. In my honest opinion, you'll never find a more humane person, always finds a way of doing things without harming innocents. Believes strongly in trust, loyalty and honour; she'll go out of her way to make friends with anyone on her crew and feels duty-bound to help them.' Garrus nodded thoughtfully before walking over to the door.

'Thanks Thompson, you've given me a lot to think about.' he said, walking into the cargo bay. _What a strange man. _John thought. _Why's he so interested in Shepard anyway?_ He returned to his terminal with a heavy sigh. _I never even found out why he was awake at this hour._

* * *

><p>Garrus decided to hit the showers after his talk with Thompson, then head to the sleeper pods to get some much needed rest; to be perfectly honest he really didn't feel like sleeping, but he had promised Shepard and Chakwas that he would. After stripping off his armour and underclothes Garrus stepped into the cubicle, the automatic shower turning on and swamping him in pleasantly hot water. Garrus could remember just how fondly he regarded the showers after the mission on Noveria. He fervently wished he would never be that cold again.<p>

With the hot water running in great rivulets from his plates, Garrus' thoughts once again drifted to Shepard and how she had helped him find Saleon. Not many superior officers would go to such lengths to help their subordinates. What startled him more, though, was that she seemed to be treating him more like a friend than simply as a crew member. Throughout his life, Garrus had precious few friends. Even then, they were mostly military friends and either died or moved on after he left for C-Sec. If someone had told him just a month ago that a female human superior would treat him like a friend, Garrus would have had them sectioned, yet here he was. He didn't know what to make of it at all. The shower began its drying sequence, and once all of the water had evaporated Garrus stepped out of the cubicle and began getting dressed.

'Thompson, could you come up to the CIC? You'll want to hear this.' Shepard's voice came over the intercom. John glanced over at Tali, who was happily typing away at her terminal.

'I'll just be a minute alright?' he said.

'That's fine; let me know what it's about.'

'I will.' John headed towards the elevator, wondering why Shepard would want him on the CIC. After emerging on the crew deck he immediately headed for the stairs. When the doors at the top opened they revealed Shepard standing on the podium by the galaxy map. She turned to face him before motioning him over to join her.

'He's here Admiral.' Shepard said.

'Ah, good.' came the voice of Admiral Hackett over the ship's speakers, 'I have some information you may be interested in. Someone is killing former Alliance scientists. There have been four deaths in the past month.'

'I don't see why this would be of personal interest to me Admiral.'

'I am told that before they left the Alliance they were stationed on Akuze for a top secret experiment.' John was stunned. Of all the things to come up now, it had to be Akuze. He was so surprised by the news that he didn't answer for a few seconds.

'Thompson?' Hackett asked, sounding concerned.

'I'm still here Admiral, what do you need me to do?'

'There is one scientist left from the team, hiding out in the Newton system of the Kepler Verge. What you do with him is up to you. Good luck, and I hope you find answers to the questions you no doubt want to ask. Hackett out.' the line went dead and John turned to Shepard.

'How long until we're there?' he asked, emotion beginning to cloud his mind.

'Half an hour, we aren't that far away.' She looked to the side for a moment before looking back at him, 'Are you okay with this? I mean, it might just be a coincidence…'

'No, it's not a coincidence. Hackett didn't tell us what they were working on and if he knew, he'd have said something, which means the files are sealed, even to him. Those scientists were doing something illegal on Akuze and I have a pretty good idea what that could be. Whoever's hunting them down obviously knows that as well.' John began walking towards the elevator to suit up, thoughts raging through his mind. Akuze had been one of the most traumatic experiences of his military career, and the idea that somebody was behind it, Alliance personnel no less, sickened him more than he was willing to admit. He proceeded to his locker in a near stupor, oblivious to the world around him. It was only after he had donned his armour that he realised the rest of the ground crew had assembled. John turned to see Garrus standing next to him.

'You seem a bit…distant.' the turian said.

'Got a reason to be.' John said abruptly, trying to end the conversation: he really didn't feel like talking right now. Garrus' mandibles widened slightly, but he left it at that, instead choosing to go and have some banter with their resident krogan. John looked down at the pistol he kept with him at all times; it had belonged to someone who had died on Akuze, a corporal. It was a constant reminder of John's past, and the price of leadership. He holstered the gun on a magnetic rail on his back before walking over to the Mako, where the rest of the team were gathered.

'The building housing the scientist is at the top of a long trail up a mountain. The nearest safe landing zone for the Mako is several kilometres away, so Thompson will drop onto the mountain ahead of us and make sure our path is safe.' almost as soon as she finished, the cargo bay doors opened and Joker's voice came over the radio.

'This is your stop Thompson, good luck out there.' John immediately ran for the opening, hurling himself out into the planet's atmosphere. He became surrounded by the familiar roaring noise caused by the air rushing past his suit. From here, he could just about see the building he was aiming for, so he angled himself towards it. Once within range, he fired the deceleration thrusters, bringing himself to a slow halt on the ground. John looked up and immediately froze: there were three rather startled mercenaries staring back at him. For a long time, neither side moved, but unfortunately for John, one of the mercenaries gathered enough wits to point his gun at him. It was, of course, a rocket launcher. Uttering an inaudible curse, John fired up his stealth generator, hoping to buy himself time. Sure enough, the mercenaries seemed even more shocked after seeing a man disappear into thin air right before them.

One of the mercenaries shouted something and began running back to the building. What he didn't know was that there was an invisible sword waiting to clothesline him. The impact sent him to the ground, blood pouring from a huge cut in his throat. John turned to the other mercenaries, who were thoroughly terrified by this point, and began running at them. One raised his rifle, but it was of no use. John batted it aside before sinking his sword into the man's gut. The third mercenary managed to get a few shots off, but before he could penetrate John's kinetic barriers he grabbed the man's neck in one hand and hurled him off the edge of the precipice. John activated his radio.

'There were a few hostile mercs outside the base, they've been taken care of. Looks like the rest of the trail is clear.'

'Roger that, we should be there in a few minutes.' Shepard replied. John looked back at the corpses, deciding to examine them and find out what he could. As he approached one of the bodies, he noticed that there was a hand sticking out from behind a stack of crates. He walked over to investigate and found the body of a man dressed in very unusual armour. The helmet was integrated into the suit and had an unusually large glass visor, almost the size of the man's face. The armour itself was white with a few yellow and black stripes, and there was a logo emblazoned on the shoulder. A very familiar logo. Upon seeing it, John went very pale, anger seething through his mind. He almost went into the base that very moment but something stopped him before he did. Instead he stood there, anger still raging through his mind, trying to rationalise his thoughts. _Those mercs are obviously the ones hunting down the scientists, but they haven't left yet, which must mean he's still alive. We might not have much time._ Just as he was about to contact Shepard to tell her to hurry John saw the Mako drive into view. Within seconds the team had disembarked and were walking over to him.

'Who were these guys?' Shepard asked.

'Just some mercs. But we've got bigger problems. The scientist was with Cerberus and I think these mercs were the ones going after him.' Shepard nodded before opening the door to the base.

'Then we'll just have to get to him before they do.'

* * *

><p>Tali ducked back behind cover, waiting for her shotgun to cool down. There were seven mercs left in the room; John was taking care of two of them so the other five were their responsibility. Her omni-tool beeped to inform her that her weapon was ready for use, so she got to her feet. Three of the mercs were being suspended by a biotic field while the other two were keeping their heads down, trying to avoid the hail of fire that Wrex was directing their way as he slowly strode towards them. Tali decided to turn her attention on the three enemies being suspended above the ground, noticing that their shields were about to fail. As soon as they did, she unloaded her shotgun into the closest merc, sending him flying limply through the air. The second received a headshot, courtesy of Garrus, and the final enemy was riddled with assault rifle fire from Ash and Shepard. Tali looked over at Wrex to see him pick up a merc with his left hand before head-butting him hard enough to cave in his helmet. The other found himself on the receiving end of a shotgun blast. He staggered backwards, clutching at his stomach before falling on the blood-slick floor.<p>

Thompson walked over to the other door in the room, a grim expression on his face, and waited for the rest of the squad. Without saying a word, he pressed the button and opened the door to reveal two men, one of whom held a gun to the other's head.

'Stay back! I have no grief with you! All I want is this—this—' the man with the gun said, trailing off as he looked at their group. His eyes were wide with shock and his mouth was hanging open, 'Thompson? My god. What—how?' Tali looked over at Thompson to see that he was in a similar state.

'Corporal Toombs? What's going on? How did you live?' Toombs' eyes darted back and forth between the scientist and Thompson.

'I survived Akuze sir, thought I was the only one. Looks like you made it out too.' the Corporal's face contorted in rage, 'I found the men who did it, the ones responsible for all the deaths! This _scientist_,' Toombs almost seemed to spit the word out, 'is the last of them.' Thompson took a step forwards.

'What happened Corporal, where have you been?'

'Cerberus captured me after the attack, wanted to do research on me. They pumped me full of thresher venom! They tortured me, they broke me!' Toombs was almost screaming at this point, 'I don't know how long I was in there, but someone blew up Cerberus and I escaped. Been hunting these bastards down ever since.'

'This man is crazy! Please, you have to help me, I've done nothing wrong!' the scientist said. Nobody seemed to take notice though.

'Do you still hear them sir?' Toombs asked, 'The men, screaming as they were eaten alive by threshers. The men: Adams, Crenshaw, Johnson, Smith, all being ripped to shreds before my eyes! I still hear them; see them every time I close my eyes! I want to kill the bastards responsible for it all, and there's only one left.' the Corporal's finger hovered over the trigger of his pistol.

'Toombs wait! Don't do it! The Toombs I knew wouldn't kill a person for revenge. You're not a murderer, don't let them make you into one.' Toombs looked at Thompson for a long time, tears in the corners of his eyes.

'You're right. I won't let them change me. After all they've done, I can't let them win.' his arm lowered, dropping his pistol to the floor. The scientist turned to face Thompson, the smug look on his face dissolving after seeing the look directed at him.

'Toombs may not be a murderer, but it's far too late for me.' Thompson said in a terribly quiet voice. Before anyone could react, he brought his own pistol up and shot the scientist between the eyes. Tali jumped back in shock: she had never expected Thompson to do something like that. She took a step forward, preparing to shout at him, but then saw his expression. The boundless sadness and remorse she saw in those eyes took her breath away, and she stood there, unable to say anything as the rest of the crew gathered around him. Suddenly, Shepard spoke up, telling everyone to get out of the room and leave Thompson and Toombs in peace. Without a word, everybody began heading back to the Mako. Tali looked back just before the door closed to see Toombs place a hand on Thompson's shoulder.

Tali honestly didn't know what to think anymore. Not that long ago he convinced Garrus not to shoot Saleon and yet here he is, shooting a helpless scientist. Tali's faith in Thompson was extremely shaken and she was unsure of what to do about it. _He must have a reason for killing him, it just doesn't make sense._

She began shaking her head. _Keelah Thompson, what have you done?_ Just then, the door opened, and out walked Thompson and the Corporal. The look in Thompson's eyes was staggering: Tali had seen him in a blind rage and in deep sorrow, but what she saw now was much more terrifying; they were empty. Tali couldn't bear to look in his eyes, but found herself unable to stop. Despite everything that had happened, she wanted to comfort him, tell him everything would be alright, and she could tell she wasn't alone. Shepard walked over to his side, worry written all over her face. She raised an arm, as if to hold him, but stopped as Thompson strode past her without a glance. Not a word was spoken as the team returned to the Mako, and from there, to the Normandy.

* * *

><p>John stared into the drive core, losing himself in its gentle blue glow. It was once again the night cycle aboard the Normandy and all was quiet as he meandered through his memories. Pretty much everybody aboard the ship had tried to find out what was wrong, but he had refused to talk about it. Even Wrex had made an appearance, though John suspected that Shepard had made him do it. John didn't like blindsiding his colleagues and friends but he felt like he had no choice: John feared that if he tried to talk to them he would reveal a part of his past best left hidden, or perhaps alienate them by getting angry over it. He knew that after a few days he would be fine, be able to put it behind him, but for now his memories wouldn't leave him alone. John heard the door open behind him. He let out a sigh, <em>Speaking of not leaving me alone.<em>

'John, please tell me what's making you like this.' _Shepard, wonderful._

'Killing that guy, that's what. Remember when I said that killing a civilian had a price? Well this is it.' John said, trying to end the conversation quickly.

'Bullshit, this goes deeper than that. What the hell does "it's far too late for me" Mean anyway?' John sighed, knowing that Shepard wouldn't give up. Not this time.

'Trust me when I say this Jane, you're better off not knowing.' this just seemed to make Shepard angrier.

'I don't care! I'm not leaving here until I find out.'

'Please Jane, don't make me do this.' John tried pleading with her as he became more desperate, but he knew it was futile.

'Don't make me order you to tell me John, because you know I will if I have to.' he stared at Shepard for a long time, debating what to do next. He had always told himself that he wouldn't tell her for her own protection, but what harm could it really do? They had never kept secrets from each other, never lied.

'You remember when I left project Vindicare, after Jason died?' Shepard seemed taken aback by this question.

'Yes, I do. It was pretty much the first time you were allowed to contact me after you joined them.'

'Well, the truth is… Jason died a long time before that. Four years before, to be precise.' Shepard gasped a little, but decided to wait for him to continue rather than ask the inevitable questions, 'I didn't contact you because I was a wreck, didn't know what to say. I stayed with Samantha on the Citadel for about a month, trying to pull myself together, when Samantha was killed as well.'

'What? I didn't know that Samantha had died!'

'I know you lost touch with her after graduation, so it's no great surprise you hadn't heard about it. Turns out, the people who killed her were also behind the attack on Mindoir. Found out I had survived, wanted to teach me a lesson.'

'Why did they wait until then?' John shrugged.

'Don't know. Never will. After that I dropped off the grid, spent the next four years hunting them down. I killed civilians, innocent people in the pursuit of my revenge. I was almost consumed by the anger and hate, almost lost my mind.' John looked away for a second, 'I'm not too sure that I didn't.'

'Why didn't you tell me?' Shepard asked. She seemed to trying to decide whether to be angry at him or console him.

'I didn't know what you'd think of me, whether you'd hate me for it. Regardless, that scientist was just one more stain on my already blood-soaked hands.'

'So then, what made you convince Garrus and Toombs to spare their targets?'

'I can't bear the thought of somebody else repeating my mistakes. But that scientist had to die. I know how Cerberus works; they would have gotten him out of trouble and he would have been back to experimenting within weeks. He deserved his death, and I knew that I had to kill him, because adding one more kill to my tally wouldn't matter.' Shepard stood there for a moment, deciding what to do.

'Alright.' she said, turning to leave, 'At least now I know. I'll let you get back to… whatever the hell you were doing.' John spoke up again just as she was about to leave.

'Thanks for that Shepard. I feel…better now that I've got that off my chest.' She turned to face him, flashing him that special smile he'd never seen her give to anyone else.

'Hey, it's what I do.'


	11. Chapter 11: Distress Beacon

**Author's note: Hello again everybody, it's been quite a while hasn't it? I'm really, really sorry about the wait, but the will to write just hasn't been there. Hopefully this chapter is a sign of change, and that I will begin updating again on a regular basis. No promises though.**

* * *

><p>John stood there, breathing heavily, sweat dripping off his skin. Ash was standing opposite him in a similar state. John had honestly not expected this result; she had obviously been practicing. Their first sparring match had ended in a resounding victory for himself, whereas this time the match had to be called a tie before any serious damage was done. He looked over at the t-shirt and jacket he had taken off before the fight and decided it would be prudent to shower before putting them back on. The spectators began filing out of the room, most of them seeming extremely disappointed at the outcome except for Joker, who appeared unusually smug for some reason. Ashley walked over to him, having donned her overalls.<p>

'Well that was fun. Shame they called it off though, I was really close to winning.' she said, a small smile on her face.

'Really? I reckon you're more tired than you're letting on. Another five minutes and I'd have won.' Ash raised an eyebrow.

'You think so? I can show you just how much energy I've got left.' John smiled as his eyes began to sparkle mischievously.

'Be careful Ash, I just might take you up on that offer.'

'We'll have to take a rain check on that tiebreaker: looks like the skipper wants to talk to you,' she began to turn away. 'Maybe next time.' she said with a wink. It was then that John noticed Shepard walking over to him.

'Damn, that was close. Never seen anything quite like it. You starting to get rusty?' John let out a short laugh.

'Far from it; Ashley has gotten much better and I have no idea how. From the look on Joker's face after the fight though, I'd bet he was in on it.'

'It wouldn't surprise me; nothing goes on here that he doesn't know about.'

'I'll have to ask him about it later, right now I _really_ need a shower.'

'I noticed.' Shepard shifted slightly, 'Are you feeling any better? You seemed pretty down when Toombs left.'

'Much better, actually. That fight helped clear my head.'

'Glad to hear it. Anyway, I'll let you go now. Got some Spectre stuff to do.' Shepard said, turning towards the elevator. John made his way over to the showers, quickly washing himself off before returning to his terminal on the engineering deck. Before he could get anything done, however, Tali walked over to him.

'Thompson! This is the first time I've seen you here since…well…' she seemed to falter for a moment.

'Since I killed the Cerberus scientist?' Tali looked a bit sheepish upon hearing that.

'Yes. Does this mean you're feeling better?' John smiled slightly, trying to make it look honest.

'I'm fine Tali, no need to worry about me.'

'Well…actually…'

'Is something wrong?'

'No, it's nothing, just forget I said anything.' She began to turn away. John grasped Tali's arm with his cybernetic hand, causing the quarian to recoil slightly, clearly not expecting the contact.

'Please Tali, if there's anything else…' John could see her eyes darting about behind her mask, belying her hesitation. For a moment, she looked like she was going to ask him something, but instead she shook herself free.

'Really, it's nothing. Now if you don't mind, these computations won't solve themselves.' John watched Tali as she walked back over to her terminal, refusing to look back at him. He shook his head, muttering under his breath about women.

* * *

><p>'Wrex.'<p>

'Shepard.'

'How're you holding up?'

'About as well as can be expected for a member of a dying species whose arch-enemy has been released on the galaxy.' Shepard rolled her eyes.

'Why can't you ever talk about anything nice?'

Wrex grunted.

'Why do I even talk? Never solves anything, learned that the hard way.'

'You're such a downer Wrex. Would it make you feel better if we talked about fighting?'

'No.'

'I'll try it anyway.'

'If you must.'

'What did you think about the duel?' Shepard wasn't sure, but she thought she could see an odd gleam in the old krogan's eyes.

'Thompson's good, I can see why he survived on Tuchanka. It's a shame he's holding back though.'

'What makes you think he's holding back?'

'I've seen him in battle: he can punch through solid metal with that arm of his, but he doesn't use his strength in his duels.'

'Probably because he doesn't want to kill Ash.'

'Still a shame; that would be a fight worth watching.' Shepard folded her arms, a slight smile creeping onto her face.

'Who do you think would win in a fight between me and you?' Wrex looked startled at this, hesitating a moment before answering.

'You are a good warrior, but in a fight against a krogan good isn't enough.'

'Oh really? Would it help if I told you that I know how to remove a krogan's head-plate with a knife?' Wrex's eyes grew wide and he almost took a step back.

'How do you know that?' he said in a very low voice.

'Thompson taught me, one of the little "tricks" he picked up on Tuchanka.'

'If we ever get in a fight, I'll have to search you for weapons then.'

'Good luck getting them all, I can be very… resourceful.' Shepard turned to leave, 'See you later Wrex.'

'Before you go.' Wrex said, 'I could do with a favour.' Shepard was intrigued by this.

'I'm listening.'

The big krogan shifted nervously.

'A turian called Ton Actus stole something from my family, some armour. I just found out where he's keeping it.'

'Send the coordinates to Joker, by the time we're finished with him he'll need a surgeon to remove the boot from his ass.' Wrex nodded, looking slightly relieved.

'Thanks Shepard. I owe you one.'

'Anytime Wrex. Anytime.' Shepard turned towards Ash, who was standing at her usual post. She was heavily favouring her left side, a hand placed upon her hip as she took slow, deep breaths; it appeared as though she had taken more damage in the fight than she was letting on. As Shepard approached, the Gunnery Chief straightened in an effort to conceal her pain.

'If it's that bad Ash you should go see Chakwas.' Shepard said, an almost imperceptible smirk on her face.

'I'm fine skipper; just a little winded is all. It won't affect my performance.'

'I'm not worried about your performance Ash, I'm worried about you.'

'Honestly Shepard, nothing a little sleep can't fix.'

'If you say so.' Shepard murmered dubiously. She could see a faint glimmer of pain in Ashley's eyes, meaning Thompson dealt out a lot more damage than he took.

'I'm tougher than I look you know.'

'Oh believe me, after those fights there isn't any doubt.'

'I'm glad Thompson decided to fight me, it seemed to help him get over Toombs.' Shepard gave her a curious look, prompting further explanation, 'Before the fight he seemed really distant, as if his heart wasn't in anything anymore. During the fight though, he seemed to focus, cleared his head and actually began trying to do something. I'm not good with words, so I'm glad that I managed to help him in my own way.' Shepard began to smile; she hadn't thought of it like that.

'Ash, you can be really sneaky when you want to be.'

'It's an advantage I have, people don't expect it. I'm just like old Wrex there: people see him and just assume he's a brute, but there is a brain in there. Somewhere. I think.'

'I'll try and keep that in mind.' Shepard chuckled as she began making her way over to the Mako, 'I'll see you later Ash.' The Gunnery Chief simply nodded her head before turning back to the guns spread out across her work station. Next, Shepard walked over to Garrus, who seemed thoroughly engrossed in an extranet search, though she couldn't tell what for. As the turian saw his Commander approaching he quickly shut down his omni-tool and turned to greet her.

'Shepard! I wanted to thank you for helping me with Saleon.'

'What, again?' Shepard asked, looking at him dubiously; he seemed agitated over something, but she decided not to ask him about it.

'I was just thinking about how you didn't have to help me but you did anyway. Not many officers would do that for a member of their crew, never mind an alien.'

'We've been through this Garrus: you're part of my squad now.'

'I suppose, but I still wanted to thank you,' the turian glanced to the side. 'Do you know why Thompson acted like he did with that scientist?' Shepard blinked a few times.

'That sort of came out of nowhere.'

'I've been thinking about it for a while, I just kept forgetting to bring it up.'

'You're the first person to ask me, I would've thought people would be more concerned about it.'

'They are, they just don't want to ask.'

'Right, well if Thompson hasn't already told you then I won't. If you want to know what happened then you'll have to go to him.' Garrus' mandibles tightened after hearing that, seemingly in disappointment. For some reason, this prompted Shepard to continue, 'He probably hasn't told anybody about it because nobody's asked. Thompson doesn't go out of his way to tell people about his past, but he's never turned anyone down if they ask. The way he sees it there's no reason to hide what he's done.' Garrus' mandibles once again stretched wide, his eyes gleaming. Something about his expression made Shepard return the pseudo-smile.

'I might do just that. Thanks again Shepard.' the turian said before, leaving for the engineering deck.

Shepard watched him go with the smile still clear on her face. She was glad to have Garrus on her crew; his constant cheerfulness and sharp one-liners made a refreshing change from the battle-hardened veterans she was used to dealing with. _Maybe after all this Saren business has been dealt with we could keep in touch. _Shepard thought, her mind drifting to her old friends or rather the precious few she had left. After several years of turmoil the group had been whittled down to the point where she could count all of her friends on one hand. She dearly wished that she could count Garrus among them; for some inexplicable reason he always seemed to cheer her up, despite the insurmountable odds they were facing.

Shepard sighed as she walked over to the elevator, wondering if Garrus would be quite as cheerful after hearing Thompson's story.

* * *

><p>'You sure you want to know?' John asked. They were standing away from the rest of the engineering crew, to prevent being overheard.<p>

'Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be asking.' Garrus responded. A faint smile touched the edge of John's lips.

'Fair point. Alright then, what exactly do you want to know?' The turian seemed taken aback.

'What, you're going to tell me just like that? No arguing? No stalling? No "you wouldn't understand?"' John's smile grew.

'Of course not, what kind of person do you think I am? You're a crew-mate; you have a right to know. Besides, I'm sure that you could find it all out by looking at my record.'

'I thought your record would be sealed?'

'Shepard's the Spectre, my record's still more or less public. Well, apart from the stuff in project Vindicare.' Garrus sighed in irritation.

'Never thought of that. Would have been much easier than working up the courage to ask in person.' Upon hearing this, John began thoroughly grinning.

'What's this? Our resident turian recruit is afraid of the big bad human? Shame on you Garrus.'

'Hey, I'm only doing this because nobody else wants to; I do have a reputation to keep.'

'You have a reputation?'

'Of course.' Garrus feigned an indignant look, 'I'll have you know that I'm well known for my good looks and style.' John barked out a short laugh.

'You were wasted at C-Sec Garrus, with bullshitting like that you could have been a politician.'

'Where's the fun in that? Not many politicians get to fly around the galaxy on a hunt for a rogue spectre. I'd say this beats any job on the citadel.'

'I hear that, you can't lead a good life from behind a desk.' John paused, looking back at his workstation, 'But that's not what you're here for. Tell me, what do you know of the planet Akuze?'

'Apart from what I've heard from Shepard, nothing.' John was about to reply, but before he could Shepard's voice sounded over the intercom.

'We've picked up a signal from a distress beacon, I want the ground team combat ready in ten mikes. Shepard out.' John could hear Garrus sigh.

'Looks like we'll have to discuss this after the mission, let's get ready.' he said to the turian. The two soldiers walked over to the lockers, where Wrex and Ashley were already preparing for the mission. John opened his locker and pulled out his helmet. He stared into the jet-black visor for a few moments, remembering the last time he picked up a distress beacon.

* * *

><p><em>It was quiet on the wind-swept plateau of rock that could have been an island in the long distant past, surrounded by a shallow lake of cool, clear water. John could almost see it in his mind's eye: clean water rippling softly in the breeze as the maroon star slowly made its majestic trek across the sky. He sighed, bringing himself out of his momentary daydream before turning towards his squad and the Grizzly that had been dropped off for their use.<em>

'_Private Hawkins, I want you to man the gun. Corporal Toombs, you're driving. The rest of you, pile in the back.' With a quick "yes sir" the squad embarked on the transport, and John sat himself down near the entry point and looked over his men. He almost let out a laugh at the thought; after having spent so long with barely any human contact he was now in command of his own squad. John cast his thoughts back to the events that had brought him to this point as the Grizzly took off towards the location of the beacon. Lost in his mind as he was he barely took any notice of the long journey; the silence was unbroken, his men seemingly more than usual. John was snapped out of his reverie by the feeling of the Grizzly grinding to a halt. Disembarking from the transport, John was faced with an odd scene: a distress beacon sitting in middle of a large, flat area of ground. Signalling his squad forward, he walked over to the beacon. It was on auto-repeat, with no sign of who left it there. With a start, John realised that something was seriously wrong. He turned, about to scream at his squad to get back to the Grizzly, but he never had the chance._

Tali was confused. She just couldn't process what she was seeing. An entire squad of Alliance marines lay dead in the silicate dust, their armour seemingly dissolved in a number of places, leaving the ruined flesh underneath open to the atmosphere. The only thing she could imagine that could cause such wounds were Rachni, but they wouldn't have just left the bodies as they were. Besides that, the Grizzly that the squad had used was untouched. Next to the vehicle stood an Alliance distress beacon, whirring softly as it continued to emit its signal. Tali sighed to herself as she looked around at the perfectly flat, circular depression they were in. The whole situation felt wrong to her; why would these marines get out of a perfectly good tank to set up a beacon, and what had killed them? She glanced over at Thompson, who was standing next to the Mako, where they disembarked. His hands were clenched into fists as he stared straight ahead, whatever expression he held being hidden by his helmet. Tali frowned, something about his demeanour seemed…off, like there was something bothering him beyond what was immediately evident. She decided to find out what was wrong. Walking up to the silent soldier, Tali noticed that he was shaking slightly.

'Thompson, what's wrong?' she asked, trying to snap him out of his reverie. For a few seconds, he didn't respond, and continued to stare straight ahead. As Tali was about to ask again, she heard him begin to speak.

'Get everyone back to the Mako.' Thompson said, his voice barely audible above the sound of the wind.

'What?' Tali asked, wondering if she had heard him right.

'Back in the Mako, now!' he shouted, causing everyone to turn as he grabbed Tali and rushed her towards the rear hatch of the vehicle.

'Thompson, what's going on?' Tali asked. Thompson looked like he was about to answer, but paused as the ground began shaking violently. All hesitation was lost as everyone scrambled to get back to safety. Tali felt herself being pushed into a seat as Thompson slammed down opposite her. Shepard threw herself into the driver's seat and began hitting buttons. Just as the door to the Mako closed behind Liara, the ground buckled underneath them, causing the entire squad to lose their balance, hitting the metal floor hard. Tali groaned as she managed to get back into her seat and, with a great deal of effort, buckle herself in while Shepard fought to gain control of the unruly Mako. Just as the vehicle began moving forward, a great rent appeared in the back panel, and it tore off with a deafening screech. The Mako jolted again as it managed to gain some speed. Time seemed to slow down as Tali watched Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams get thrown to the floor before being flung out of the gaping hole.

'ASHLEY!' she heard Thompson shout, as he leapt out of his seat and through the void after the soldier.

Tali could scarcely believe what had just happened, her mind struggling to understand the circumstances. Thompson and Ash were out there, with that _thing_. Whatever had killed those marines was here, _and it had Thompson!_ Tali began desperately fumbling with her safety harness, only one thought going through her mind, but she met with failure as her hands refused to do as they were told. Dimly, she could hear Shepard speaking.

'Joker, we need evac now! We have a thresher maw!' she yelled into the radio as Garrus hauled himself into the gunner's seat.

'Roger that Commander, we'll be there in three, just hold on!' Tali began hyperventilating, still not giving up with her harness. _Oh Keelah, this is bad,_ she thought, catching a glimpse of a colossal creature through the hole in the hull. It seemed to be getting ready to attack the Mako, but just before it could do so, it was hit in the side with a large explosion. The shot came from the other direction. From where they had left the Grizzly.

'Shepard! Ashley and I have commandeered the Grizzly, we've got your back!' came Thompson's voice over the radio. Tali had never felt quite as relieved in her life as she did in that moment. And yet, there was something wrong. In all the battles they had been in, Thompson had been the very image of calm control, but here, now, he seemed afraid. For the first time, he seemed truly scared. Tali could hear Shepard respond, but she didn't listen, being too occupied with her thoughts and trying to stay in her seat. With an unholy screech, the thresher maw lunged at the Mako.

* * *

><p>Garrus was standing in the engineering bay, looking forlornly at the ruined Mako. Shepard was there next to him, frowning as she looked over the damage.<p>

'The Alliance isn't going to like this,' she muttered under her breath.

'Forget the Alliance, what about me?' Garrus shook his head, 'Think of how many calibrations I'll have to do to get the next one operational.' Shepard gave him a sly look.

'You'll just have to pull some all-nighters. I can imagine it now: just you and Mako, all alone, with nothing but the light of your omni-tool for company.' She chuckled softly to herself, 'It'll be romantic.'

Garrus' throat went dry: he would never have expected his commander to say something like that. He blinked a few times, desperately trying to find something, anything, to say.

'It might have to wait a while, I mean, there's such a long line. I wouldn't want to get its hopes up.'

Shepard began laughing, a wondrously light, hearty sound that widened Garrus' mandibles in a smile.

'With a wit like that, it's not hard to imagine.' Garrus was about to respond when a voice sounded over the ship's intercom.

'I've got Admiral Kahoku on the line Shepard; I figured he'd appreciate it if you told him yourself.' Shepard sighed before turning towards the elevator.

'Duty calls Garrus, we'll have to continue this later.'

'You know where to find me, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go.'


End file.
